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Re:Google bans Podcast Addict app over non-approved Covid-19... by ksk on Monday May 18, 2020 @05:58PM (#23228866)
>Yes, we can write letters and stuff, but that doesn't really allow us to hold them accountable

Public protests/rallies/marches do bring about change in government/government policies. Many politicians do care about their public image, and are susceptible to manipulation based on public pressure.

>Compare that with private sector. Even for entities like Google, we've got huge latitude to vote with our feet. We can use DuckDuckGo, etc. Our choices as consumers provides a comparatively enormous bandwidth.

Okay, so agreeing with you for the sake of argument - they provide a bandwidth, in theory, but what is the pointif nobody actually uses it? It is "effectively" zero accountability. No mass exodus from Google/Apple/Microsoft/Facebook/Twitter/Whatsapp/TikTok/insert bad company/...

Re:Google bans Podcast Addict app over non-approved Covid-19... by scarface74 on Monday May 18, 2020 @06:57PM (#23229348)
So now we need the government to intervene for people's own good because people willingly give their money to Big Tech?
Re:Google bans Podcast Addict app over non-approved Covid-19... by ksk on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @12:09PM (#23236454)
The government is a made-up construct we created to serve us. What the government should or shouldn't do is up to us.
Re:Google bans Podcast Addict app over non-approved Covid-19... by CWuestefeld on Monday May 18, 2020 @07:42PM (#23229692)
In the political arena, the status quo is that each voter must choose one of:

A) I must vote for the Democrat candidate because the Republicans are evil and they'll subjugate women and minorities.

B) I must vote for the Republicans because the Democrats are evil and they'll turn us into a bunch of commies.

There is no room in today's political debate for even mention of finer points of free speech philosophy, when all we can do is scare people into voting for the lesser evil.

Many politicians do care about their public image, and are susceptible to manipulation based on public pressure.

And this is no less true in the private sector.

Re:Google bans Podcast Addict app over non-approved Covid-19... by ksk on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @12:18PM (#23236608)
>And this is no less true in the private sector.

Well, of course there are nuances to anything, but CEOs are not elected by the public. They don't have "opponent" CEOs trying to milk their scandals in public ads for getting a job. Its different. Anyway, this conversation has totally gone off topic ! We'll just have to agree to disagree on some things, although I suspect we have more points that we agree on than not.