Re:Amazon, Apple and Google Cut Off Parler
by agiroth on Saturday January 09, 2021 @11:10PM
(#25709818)
> No, everybody is. In a democratic society, it is the responsibility of every citizen and corporation to act in accordance with democratic values.
Exactly, everybody is. In a democratic society, everybody decides together what the rules for things like this are, not 2-3 tech CEOs.
I say, draft laws around this and let the people vote on them. Then at least we'd have some basis for doing things like this.
Re:Amazon, Apple and Google Cut Off Parler
by Fellshard on Saturday January 09, 2021 @10:46PM
(#25709494)
The exact same argument could be applied regarding free speech, mind.
While the government is the only entity /legally bound/ to not restrict speech, it is also untenable to have a government that cannot touch it presiding over an oligarchy of corporations that are wholly censorious. If free speech is critical to a democratic society (which it is), it is necessary that corporations do what they can to uphold it.
Re:Amazon, Apple and Google Cut Off Parler
by hypersoar on Saturday January 09, 2021 @11:23PM
(#25709971)
The actual solution is to not allow the existence of enormously powerful mega-corporations. The problem is that we have these companies, each able to influence hundreds of millions to billions of people with virtually no accountability. Facebook and its subsidiaries comprise the most far-reaching media apparatus in history, and the whole thing is under the control of a guy. The same is largely true of Amazon. We shouldn't have let this happen.
No, everybody is. In a democratic society, it is the responsibility of every citizen and corporation to act in accordance with democratic values.
At the end of the day, democracies aren't built out of laws written on paper -- they're built on the everyday decisions people take such as voting, arguing over issues, and condemning non-democratic bad actors.
Just as people can protest in the streets against undemocratic abuses of power, so corporate entities can and should deplatform people and organizations that explicitly, violently threaten our democracy.
It's up to every person and corporation to be their own arbiter. That's the ultimate safeguard of democracy.
If AWS waited for a court order, it could very well be too late.