If Twitter was not private property, it would have the potential to be the most valuable democratic instrument of the networked age.
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Instead, it’s an example of that potential squandered for the short-term financial compensation of relative handful of investors.
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Until we understand the danger of our digital public spaces being privately owned (& thus private spaces) we can’t even begin to solve this.
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We’re faced with living in a future where all our public spaces are privately owned. Where there is no public sphere, only a corporate one.
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The only way to have a true competitor to Twitter is to create a supra-national entity to build and run it in the interest of the commons.
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We must do this if we want to avoid a future where all democratic instruments & public spaces are privately owned by corporate monopolies.
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(In other words, if we want to avoid a future where we don’t really have any democratic instruments or public spaces; i.e., corporatocracy.)
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@aral@CasparBowden I would expect antitrust issues if it tried... -
@glynmoody@aral@CasparBowden I'd like to remind everyone they're only websites. -
@nearyd Anything but just websites: they’re our new (private) public sphere; filter/control access to modern life +@glynmoody@CasparBowden -
@aral@glynmoody@CasparBowden They're like popular nightclubs. If they turn bad, we'll bless another flavor of the month. -
@nearyd@glynmoody@CasparBowden Without alternatives not based on selling people, that change is purely cosmetic. -
@aral@glynmoody@CasparBowden Not to Google/Twitter it isn't.
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@aral I'll b deleting everything & going here https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/2l7dvx/dropon_a_new_social_network_that_offers_what/ … -
@neur0atypical What is their business model? -
@aral Ads, as unobtrusive as possible according 2 Stevie G Dagger https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/2l7dvx/dropon_a_new_social_network_that_offers_what/cls6xb6 …
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@aral If its true that there are 2 serious bids on the table, I hope the other is from Apple or Microsoft! -
@IanRobinson If that’s the case, I hope it’s Apple. Not least because of Microsoft’s absolute incompetence in all things. -
@aral Yep. But still better option than Google!
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