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Comment by ubernostrum | Hacker News Reader

I have a soapbox.

I like to stand up on it and yell out my views. Sometimes I let my friends use it that way, too.

Some guy comes along and would like to use my soapbox to yell out his views. But I don't like him and I don't agree with his views.

Would you like the government to come force me at gunpoint to let him use my soapbox?

What you're arguing, basically, is that once my soapbox gets popular enough that lots of people want to use it, you do want the government to force me, at gunpoint, to let them use it even when I find their views repugnant.

Or, basically, what this person said, and they said it better and in fewer words:

https://twitter.com/lessdismalsci/status/1076488300188307456

View on HN

> Would you like the government to come force me at gunpoint to let him use my soapbox?

That's easy, are you the only one with that soapbox? Do you own all the soapboxes? Are you a Corporation who is taking advantage of it's market dominance and near monopoly on modern free association to control public discourse?

So yes if your soapbox networks are now an integral part of public debate then the government should either regulate you or nationalize your assets for the public good. It's no different from why ISPs should be kept neutral, why power companys should be kept neutral and why public highways should be kept neutral.

So to prevent an angry mob from taking away someone's platform, you insist we need the ability for an angry mob to take away someone's platform.

I think you need to think this through a bit more.

> to prevent an angry mob from taking away someone's platform

What? My reply had nothing to do with defending platforms from angry mobs. To reiterate in case you are misunderstanding something, if a company fits the criteria I stated in my previous reply (aka companies like Google/Alphabet) then it should be either regulated or nationalized.

So no, nothing about preventing angry mobs from taking over someone's platform. Unless you consider the government regulating businesses who are abusing their monopoly on public discourse to be an angry mob.

Honestly can't tell if you are trying to make a weird gotcha here or flat out replied to the wrong post.

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