Comment by cmckn | Hacker News Reader

Comment by cmckn | Hacker News Reader

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> Giving anyone the ability to arbitrate what is "good" speech vs "bad" speech is way too much power.

But that isn't at all what is happening here. Google has decided that they don't want to enable people to distribute certain data using their platform. They're not being crowned the omnipotent oracle of good and bad.

> you are talking about creating super powerful entities just because they agree with you.

This position is bizarre to me -- what do you think an elected government is? I vote to create "super powerful entities that agree with me" every 4 years. Those entities possess the power to destroy all life on earth. Google is not anywhere near as powerful as those entities, and while it is not (directly) democratically accountable, it does derive its power from its users.

No information will be permanently erased just because Google does not spend money and time making it available on Drive.

The amount of power google has, they can crown the winner. We can't pretend that "oh thats just google's opinion" when they control access to humanities collective knowledge.

My argument is very humble. Everyone gets to talk, whoever is most convincing gets listened to most. I don't need a paternalistic company protecting me from bad thoughts.

> This position is bizarre to me -- what do you think an elected government is?

A system with an intentional freedom to allow dissent?

They are not protecting you from bad thoughts. They are protecting themselves from lawsuits. Moderating all this content is not free. If google was not under risk of losing money by not doing this, they would have done nothing.

> My argument is very humble. Everyone gets to talk, whoever is most convincing gets listened to most. I don't need a paternalistic company protecting me from bad thoughts.

You're talking now, and this isn't (AFAIK) on Google Drive.

You want Drive to be a democratically guaranteed national resource, nationalize Google.

It's easy to think that the most powerful entity is the one with the biggest stick. Consider this though: imagine a VIP and their bodyguard. The bodyguard is much stronger and carries a gun, but he is not the one with power. The VIP can replace the bodyguard at will.

An entity that gets to tell millions exactly how to vote and which nuke-wielding bodyguard to hire is surely more powerful than said bodyguard.

> The bodyguard is much stronger and carries a gun, but he is not the one with power. The VIP can replace the bodyguard at will.

Tell that to the Gandhis. And several Cæsars.

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