Re:Online abuse: banning anonymous social media accounts is ...
by heavyset_go on Thursday October 21, 2021 @04:13PM
(#28950250)
> Entirely true, but it is also not the reason for the push to de-anonymise (and de-pseudonymise) the internet. It is merely the pretext. The true reason is to make it impossible to speak your mind without fear of retribution. The democratisation of the public discourse haunts and frightens the ruling classes to their bones. The broad dissemination of information and opinions was firmly in the hands of a feudalistic elite until just a few decades ago.
Social media companies are fiefdoms whose real customers are other companies and individuals with large piles of money that want to use it to sway public opinion for profit or power.
YouTube et al. had no problem taking plenty of Mercer money to promote things like Brexit and other content that shifts focus away from those in power to other working class individuals. All someone with enough money has to do is pay to run promoted content on the platforms and it will be disseminated instantly to billions of eyeballs.
Social media platform owners and operators regularly remove content that might rock the boat. They already know that governments will pull the kill switch on them should real unrest happen, because it's happened countless times before. That's bad for revenue, so they play ball with people in power.
Social media companies are fiefdoms whose real customers are other companies and individuals with large piles of money that want to use it to sway public opinion for profit or power.
YouTube et al. had no problem taking plenty of Mercer money to promote things like Brexit and other content that shifts focus away from those in power to other working class individuals. All someone with enough money has to do is pay to run promoted content on the platforms and it will be disseminated instantly to billions of eyeballs.
Social media platform owners and operators regularly remove content that might rock the boat. They already know that governments will pull the kill switch on them should real unrest happen, because it's happened countless times before. That's bad for revenue, so they play ball with people in power.