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Comment by horpulous | Hacker News Reader

I'm totally fine with this. If you want to advocate for a world in which all resources are privately-owned (leaving no commonly-owned space for discourse) and that a global, multi-billion-dollar social media service has the same free speech rights as a mom and pop grocery, then you deserve to reap the rewards of your own ideology.

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As an advocate of free markets and private property, I don't have any issue with bias expressed by or within Facebook. That's their prerogative. However it's my prerogative, if I so choose, to publicize their bias and dissuade others from using their platform. Rather than appeal for state intervention in the matter, I sense that's what a great deal of others are attempting to do.

It's not always that. Most of the thinking I've heard about this is not to control what Facebook may or not do. Many critics say that Facebook is a private company and can do what they want. The complaint among them is that Facebook lies about it.

Why would "Facebook is a private company and can do what they want" not apply to lying, as long as it doesn't become fraud?

Oh sure, they could lie. It's not that these people are necessarily demanding laws about the company lying, it's more a suggestion that it's not a nice thing to do. It is the outcry of people with little power to do anything other than complain about an injustice they see. I hear it's quite a popular thing to do on the left side of the political spectrum in the US.

This is not about free speech in any way.

Of course it isn't...but it is what Republican Free Speech is(c).

It is similar to Republican Jesus (https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/republican-jesus)

You are correct, but the conservatives calling Facebook out on that are trying to tell everyone it is:

> I believe they are acting in good faith and share some very deep, fundamental principles with people who believe in the principles of liberty and freedom of speech.

http://www.glennbeck.com/2016/05/19/what-disturbed-glenn-abo...

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