Re:Google’s first all-hands after 2016 election [video]
by panarky on Thursday September 13, 2018 @11:49AM
(#17979538)
> like saying a supermarket is inherently political
> happy to call it a public good
Some supermarkets cut prices in half in advance of Hurricane Florence that is expected to make landfall today.
Other supermarkets maximize profitability and eliminated sale prices and discounts in advance of the hurricane.
Some supermarkets have large, prominent displays of unhealthy foods. Others emphasize healthy alternatives.
Sometimes merchandising decisions are purely profit-maximizing, other times they're trying to do good for their community while simultaneously making a profit.
If even a supermarket is political, how do you expect internet giants to be somehow non-political?
Virtually everything that they do involves tradeoffs that some people like and others don't.
Those technologies do not require Google to be politically active in any way. Saying they are inherently political is like saying a supermarket is inherently political. Might be true in some technical sense, but practically most people are happy to call it a public good.