What I worry about most is that human support requirements will apply to smaller companies and essentially guarantee supremacy of big tech since no startup would ever be able to disrupt them.
Like we force telecom companies to serve rural areas against their will.
Like we force construction companies to use safety gear and have insurance for injuries against their will.
Like we force credit companies to provide mandatory disclosures.
Like we force airlines to do what the people in the control tower tell them to do.
And so on. The entire concept of a corporation is a legal fiction, a privilege granted by the state that enables them to pretend they even have something analogous to free will. Without the consent of the state companies wouldn’t exist at all. Maybe we should do a better job of reminding them of that.
Yes. This happens all the time in all sortes of industries. But people on HN think that tech companies are somehow different and shouldn't be held to the normal rules that other companies have adhered to for decades, generations, and centuries.
That's what laws are: forcing people to do things they would otherwise not do.
This happens everywhere, not just Big Tech. Even as humans, we try to handle the 99% and ignore the 1%.
I still don’t understand what anyone is proposing - force companies to provide support against their will?