Re:YouTube Bans Ron Paul Institute
by josephcsible on Friday October 01, 2021 @12:05PM
(#28720201)
> it should not be allowed for internet access providers and backbone providers to refuse access or transit because they happen to dislike the message.
The key word being "should". If my ISP refuses me access because they dislike my message today, do I have any legal recourse?
If that ISP wants to remain protected as a common carrier you do but it will take a number of such cases to find out whether this holds. This is why I used the term should instead of is - a precedent needs to be set.
Centralised corporate platforms like Youtube, Twitter and Facebook are not public platforms and should not be treated as such. The 'net is the platform and should be treated as such. Just like the old telcos were not allowed to censor the phone lines it should not be allowed for internet access providers and backbone providers to refuse access or transit because they happen to dislike the message. There is a discussion to be had on whether service providers like AWS should fall under this regime, personally I see more in a decentralised approach but there are arguments to be made for including them.