Re:Aaron Sorkin: An Open Letter to Mark Zuckerberg
by m0zg on Thursday October 31, 2019 @05:03PM
(#21413690)
Ads are sort of also 1:1, in the sense that you have to pay for them to be shown, and the number of impressions is proportional to the price. You could argue USPS is more expensive in this regard, but they'd be quite happy to accept your election ads and stuff them into my mailbox, for a fee. In fact, they do this pretty much all the time, and political candidates, at least where I live, don't put a single word of truth about their opponent on the leaflets.
1. The Postal Service was established by an Act of Congress pursuant to explicit Constitutional authorization. Facebook wasn't even imagined by the Founders.
2. Facebook is a broadcast medium. Postal mail is 1:1. Very different behaviors, models, and outcomes follow.
3. The Postal Service is not a for-profit enterprise. Facebook is, and therefore has different motives, among other things.
I'll ask the opposite question: Why should Facebook be treated as a common carrier? It's not as though there aren't vast numbers of other, open, "free" methods to communicate with people over the Internet (e.g., email). Usually we designate entities as common carriers where having competition would have detrimental effects (e.g., railroads).