Hacker News Reader

I guess you could compare it to criminals using the telephone. Invention of the telephone helped a lot of people, but unfortunately it also helps criminals.

Likewise the YouTube algorithm helps many people, but criminals or unwanted people (like pedophiles) can also use it.

It's ok to think about ways to prevent it, but I don't think it should be the first concern. Imagine outlawing telephony, because criminals could benefit from its use.

View on HN

Telephony is an interesting example because for many many years it had very tight restrictions.

Telephone service providers were monopolies, sometimes government monopolies. There was only one type of telephone you could use, and that was supplied by that same monopoly. It was illegal to attach anything else to the line either directly or indirectly. There were even (outside the US) laws on what you could say when talking on the phone.

Here's an article from 1994 about a modem maker who had products that were not officially licensed to connect to the network. https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg14219263-000-technolo...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com