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Comment by matthewdgreen | Hacker News Reader

I would like to hear a long-form version that actually spells out your argument. I think we’re headed towards an authoritarian nightmare because politicians worldwide seem to be interested in tearing up the democratic process. Others seem to think we’re headed towards an authoritarian nightmare because YouTube takes down some videos. These things don’t seem comparable to me, but your comment makes me think I’m missing something important.

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They're not comparable if you see YouTube as just a company. But you can look at it differently. It is also an organization with total authority over a widely used realm of global public discourse. It can use that power to determine what you hear and see, including both censorship and promotion via "the algorithm". It has massive economic and political influence. Careers are built on its platform, and it has effectively unlimited resources to manipulate politicians and effect policies to its benefit. All this, and it is 100% undemocratic, unresponsive in nearly every way to even those within the organization much less the greater public.

To be clear, governments turning away from even what is mostly limited representative democracy is very worrying. But it's also fair to worry about corporate power.

They’re interrelated - YouTube is an arm of the media industrial complex as much as the New York Times is. What it chooses to broadcast or not affects the public consciousness.

I think what you're missing is that social media companies are now essentially acting as government propaganda outlets and actively suppressing dissent. Some people believe that the current pandemic justifies suppressing "misinformation", but obviously once the government has that power they're going to use it for other purposes as well.

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/563547-hypocritical-...

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