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Platforms are political
The thing is, you can't have a neutral platform. Such a thing doesn't exist and cannot exist. Doing nothing is not neutral. Moderating is not neutral. Recommending is not neutral. Down-ranking is not neutral. Fact checking is not neutral
Neutrality is a fallacy
Neutrality is a fallacy
If you accept that platforms are political then you understand that whoever runs the platform has a tremendous amount of power. Every decision about how the platform works has political effects. Every decision is an exercise of power
And since a few social platforms are now central to society, mediating a whole range of our relationships and interactions, the people who run them have a tremendous amount of power in society
So the question is not "how can the platform be neutral?", it's "who has the power?"
So the question is not "how can the platform be neutral?", it's "who has the power?"
At the minute the answer to that question is "a small number of people in a small number of companies". That's grotesque
Just because this is the status quo doesn't mean it was inevitable that we ended up here and it doesn't mean that it's inevitable in the future
Just because this is the status quo doesn't mean it was inevitable that we ended up here and it doesn't mean that it's inevitable in the future
It's really important to understand how and why we got to this position if we want to understand how to get out of it
