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Comment by mcpackieh | Hacker News Reader

Our "public spheres" are in fact not public, but rather are private property. Advertisers having control over them is a consequence of this.

If you actually go into town IRL and talk in the public square, no advertiser will be able to silence you because the public square is actually public. Or if you use an actually public means of communication like the postal service, again you won't be cut out because some corporate advertisers consider your speech bad for business. This phenomenon of corporate advertisers being gatekeepers of the "public sphere" only exists in actually-not-public spaces.

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> This phenomenon of corporate advertisers being gatekeepers of the "public sphere" only exists in actually-not-public spaces.

I disagree with this.

A very common example is a person saying a thing outside of work, that thing being brought to the attention of their employer, and their employer firing them.

People know this happens, and it creates a chilling effect on what they say regardless of whether they're in a public or actually-not-public space.

> Our "public spheres" are in fact not public, but rather are private property.

You have misunderstood the meaning of the word "public", because it is often used for government provided things. Many private establishments are public spheres, the most common example are Pubs - short for Public Houses.

So you have completely misunderstood the word and arguing from your mistaken assumption.

I haven't misunderstood anything. In a "public house" you can be kicked out of the owner doesn't like what you're saying, because it's private property. In places which are actually public, like a town square, this isn't the case.

I understand that it is conventional to speak of some places that are private property as being public, but they are not public in the sense that actually counts for the protection of free speech.

Some private properties really are part of the public sphere, counting for the protection of free speech. The main example being printed newspapers, that will print opinion pieces sent to them, even when they go against the private owner's interest, even when the opinion piece comes from a political enemy. They are privately owned public forums.

Other examples of public spheres in private hands are the internet provider you're using to read my comment and write your own reply. The ISP doesn't interfere with your free speech. E-Mail is another great example of a public sphere. You can freely send your opinion to any and all the people you want.

In some countries, all unexploited nature is considered public space. Trump's Twitter was deemed a public forum.

It has nothing to do with government ownership, even though most physical public forums are government owned, such as parks, streets and squares.

Public sphere as in the places and platforms hosting most public conversations these days. I am aware they are privately owned.

That Rubicon was crossed long before mass general public internet forums - Mall Cops policing privately owned shopping malls were enforcing the control of the spaces where most of the public convened .. particularly in smaller population centres that had seen their local shopping areas razed to the ground by price cutting mega stores.

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