A couple of free-market tips after the anti-Trump gags of Twitter and Facebook

11 January 20214 years ago babelfish

One of the simplest and perhaps decisive proposals (who has been writing it for years) comes from economists Luigi Zingales and Guy Rolnik, and, if implemented, it would also have the advantage of favoring the birth of other social networks. That's what it is about. Daniele Capezzone's comment for the newspaper La Verità

Censorship, like the postman, always knocks twice. Thus, after the blockade of the other day on Facebook and Instagram, the other night Donald Trump was also inhibited on Twitter , which, moreover, had been adding comments and disputes to every tweet for months.

Immediately after the gagging, it was the president's son, Donald Trump jr, who tweeted, between indignation and sarcasm: "So the ayatollahs and numerous other dictatorial regimes can have accounts without problems, despite threatening entire countries with genocide or killing homosexuals. . But the president of the United States must be permanently suspended. Mao would be proud ”.

So the ayatollah, and numerous other dictatorial regimes can have Twitter accounts with no issue despite threatening genocide to entire countries and killing homosexuals etc… but The President of the United States should be permanently suspended.

Mao would be proud.

– Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 9, 2021

To make matters worse, there is a suspicion that last night Twitter decided on the equivalent of a punitive expedition: the accounts of General Michael Flynn and lawyer Sidney Powell deleted. In a handkerchief of hours, a series of other conservative, Trumpian, Republican accounts have also disappeared in an avalanche: either because they were banned in turn or because they removed themselves from that social channel. And many, even here in Italy, have seen an unnatural "thinning" of their followers.

TOWARDS SPEAKER

In the night between Friday and Saturday (those who were awake could see it live) there was also a mass migration of many users to a social network that remained free, Parler, to the point that for a certain time those who already had an account there had difficulty writing because the system was overloaded.

VADE RETRO PARLER?

A few hours later, the new negative surprise arrived: the discovery that Parler is no longer available on Google and Apple Store. In short, a cage was suddenly triggered, upstream (compared to the downloadability of certain social networks) and downstream (compared to the usability for those who were already part of it), with a simultaneity and a "perfection" that make you think, and that the impression of being random and sudden.

THE TWO PROBLEMS

There are at least two problems to consider. The first is legal: if Twitter decides to censor a user's message or even to permanently inhibit it, for that very reason it becomes a full-fledged publisher, leaving the dimension of a mere neutral provider historically claimed by these platforms. But if he is a publisher, then it is not clear why he should be removed from the other obligations to which every other publisher is subject.

NO TO STATE INTERVENTIONS

There is certainly no need to lightly call for interventions by public authorities (which in turn would be at risk of authoritarianism and political arbitrariness, according to the government of the moment). Perhaps it is appropriate to seek a market response, opening up to free competition and preventing extremely dangerous monopolies.

THE ZINGALES PROPOSAL

One of the simplest and perhaps decisive proposals (who has been writing it for years) comes from Luigi Zingales and Guy Rolnik, and, if implemented, it would also have the advantage of favoring the birth of other social networks. What is it about? To replicate for the data, information and images that we insert on social networks the same portability mechanism that was decided a few years ago for telephone numbers, previously considered the property of telephone companies. In this way, it would be easier to "move", fuel competition between social networks, and also enhance a heritage (of writings, images, ultimately of life) that is now part of our personality.

(excerpt from an article published on 10 January 2020 in the newspaper La Verità )

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/un-paio-di-consigli-liberisti-dopo-i-bavagli-anti-trump-di-twitter-e-facebook/ on Mon, 11 Jan 2021 06:20:15 +0000.