This was interesting, but I think the author opens by giving too much leighway to the problem-causes of the 'net. Namely, the big tech companies and their responsibility to people. Google's total...
This was interesting, but I think the author opens by giving too much leighway to the problem-causes of the 'net. Namely, the big tech companies and their responsibility to people.
Google's total revenue in 2018 was in the neighborhood of 136 billion. Facebook's, somewhere in the neighborhood of 55 billion. Separate, that would make google the 56th largest country in the world by GDP, and Facebook, the 80th (assuming my numbers are right, which they only probably are). Together, that would make them the 53nd largest, and that's without subtracting that amount from other nations, or accounting for the other absolutely enormous firms which make up the bulk of the internet. 2 companies.
With this in mind, the idea that they 'just can't regulate' everything coming into and going out of their fucking enormous platforms is ridiculous. They could have teams of tens of thousands doing exactly that, more depending on the parts of the world they're paying to do it.
Not only that, but these companies are accountable for the thoughts, minds, and speech of hundreds of millions of people, but those people have no say in how that speech is regulated, used, or controlled.
It's disappointing that the author doesn't promote the idea of governments basically socializing these behemoths, because are way, way over the line where it should've happened.
This was interesting, but I think the author opens by giving too much leighway to the problem-causes of the 'net. Namely, the big tech companies and their responsibility to people.
Google's total revenue in 2018 was in the neighborhood of 136 billion. Facebook's, somewhere in the neighborhood of 55 billion. Separate, that would make google the 56th largest country in the world by GDP, and Facebook, the 80th (assuming my numbers are right, which they only probably are). Together, that would make them the 53nd largest, and that's without subtracting that amount from other nations, or accounting for the other absolutely enormous firms which make up the bulk of the internet. 2 companies.
With this in mind, the idea that they 'just can't regulate' everything coming into and going out of their fucking enormous platforms is ridiculous. They could have teams of tens of thousands doing exactly that, more depending on the parts of the world they're paying to do it.
Not only that, but these companies are accountable for the thoughts, minds, and speech of hundreds of millions of people, but those people have no say in how that speech is regulated, used, or controlled.
It's disappointing that the author doesn't promote the idea of governments basically socializing these behemoths, because are way, way over the line where it should've happened.
Socializing social media! That got a LOL from me.