Post A36BsZHo1elLetyPom by daskeit@mastodon.social
(DIR) More posts by daskeit@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #A36BsZHo1elLetyPom by daskeit@mastodon.social
2021-01-10T10:04:09Z
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the reason why centralised social networks are in a no-win situation is because they're basically utilities, but don't want to be regulated as utilities.imagine one company owning the entire telephone network and being able to control all use of it.that's where we are with each of the big tech services.
(DIR) Post #A36BsZd4kZmCirvOyG by daskeit@mastodon.social
2021-01-10T10:08:51Z
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it's like: you can't participate in conversations on Twitter without Twitter's cooperation.and maybe someone would say, that's okay, there are other services you can use. sure.but everyone's already on Twitter, and Twitter is walled and doesn't interoperate, so you can't reach the rest of your audience if you're not also on Twitter.imagine if everyone you wanted to call was on AT&T. why would you sign up for any other service?
(DIR) Post #A36Bsa0pKGm7uX2MzY by daskeit@mastodon.social
2021-01-10T10:12:36Z
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being in this sort of position is nice: twitter can enjoy all of the benefits and it doesn't have to share.but this exclusivity depends not just on having a walled garden, but on keeping enough people in your walled garden so the network effects become a defensive moat.the main threat to this sort of monopoly is an organised exodus: users leaving en masse to join an alternative
(DIR) Post #A36BsaIuF3EkobUoAi by daskeit@mastodon.social
2021-01-10T10:14:38Z
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but because it's a hassle with an uncertain outcome (i.e. it only works if everyone else does it too), users won't switch without compelling reason. like, say, being convinced that they cannot have good conversations on Twitter, because it is ideologically hostile to them.this is the competitive threat that Parler presented to Facebook and Twitter.which i'm fairly sure is a big part of why it took them so long to deplatform Trump. they didn't want to lose his base as users.
(DIR) Post #A36BsaesvKolulmMQi by daskeit@mastodon.social
2021-01-10T10:20:31Z
1 likes, 2 repeats
but they can't win, because they're not actually utilities.this is about responsibility: twitter (or any of the other services) can't palm off responsibility for the rules they (don't) make to anyone elseso they take all the blame when someone does something bad with their service, or when people don't agree with the changes they make.(this also applies to Facebook, and YouTube)and this at root comes down to the agency problems inherent when we rely on Other People's Infrastructure
(DIR) Post #A36Bsavtu4QelXjwx6 by daskeit@mastodon.social
2021-01-10T10:25:50Z
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an aside: agency problems are problems that arise when we delegate something to someone else. how do we make sure their incentives are sufficiently aligned with ours?(or: now that we've decided to depend on them to do something for us, how do we prevent them from screwing us over for their benefit?)