I think the problem goes even deeper than that. No non-state actor, who holds no democratic mandate of any kind, should hold the kind of power over citizens that Google holds.
Regulation is a ship that has kind of sailed, in my mind. The kind of regulation that we now recognize we need would have had to be in place 20 years ago. ...mostly antitrust stuff, but also specialized things like privacy / data protection and "due process" for things like account suspensions etc.
If such regulation had been in place, it would have prevented the formation of an entity such as Google in the first place, and we would instead have a healthy system of smaller players competing on who does the best job at providing the kinds of functions to society that Google provides.
Now that we are in the unfortunate situation we are in, I think it might be necessary to consider nationalizing the whole thing and putting in place governance with a democratic mandate.
Pay for an email service, and sue if you incur damages due to them terminating your service. Or run your own email server if you care to.
You pay Company X to host your email, and you enter into a service agreement. They kick your account off. If they're in violation of the service agreement, now you actually have a case against them. They know this. Their legal council knows this.
Feel free to vote for people who think companies can do as they please just because you aren't directly paying for them (even though they make money off you), I'll vote for other people.
It's ironic that you chose Standard Oil as an example. It was an unbeatable monopoly that was broken up by govt regulation, not by competition. You're arguing against your own position.
> Pay for an email service, and sue if you incur damages due to them terminating your service.
You always sign away this right when using a commercial email service. Their terms of use allow them to terminate your account with impunity.
> Or run your own email server if you care to.
This is a very 1990s understanding of the email ecosystem. It's almost impossible to start a new email service today because the big players (primarily Google and Microsoft) won't trust you and will silently refuse to deliver your emails. Sometimes you will be blanket banned, sometimes you'll just have a few missing here or there.
Because the email market is dominated by so few players, they have complete control over the ecosystem. Even if you choose your email service, your recipients will have chosen one of the big players 99.999% of the time, meaning you're also playing by their rules.
You realize that Standard Oil was broken up by the courts through the Sherman Act, which is precisely the type of regulatory action you're arguing against, right?
> Its history as one of the world's first and largest multinational corporations ended in 1911, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it was an illegal monopoly.
Seems like it was broken up by the government and not due to competition.
Only to find your mail blackholed by said behemoths because your counterparty uses them.
Granted, most people here on HN would be able to deploy their own, but you can't ask that of the average citizen who just needs email.
https://www.google.com/search?q=email+provider+service hundreds of options from the same page.
Don't put all your eggs in one basket, "everybody" knows that. It doesn't just apply to computers - non-techies are familiar with the concept too. It's common sense.
Careful what you wish for, though. Ever tried to sign up for a public utility without your real name, personal identification, a physical address, or billing information?
There are many states around the world where you can buy a prepaid SIM card without registration and participate in the public phone network. No permission at all required, cash payment works.
There is no direct connection between “public” utility and “requires registration.” But many public utilities consist in a delivery to a specific place (water, electricity) or want to charge you. So they need your address to perform their service.
Do it without an Google account.
But a postcard is a good example. Even the badest murder / raper in a prison will get a postcard.
That's horrific.
[1] https://www.zvv.ch/zvv/de/abos-und-tickets/tickets/einzelbil... [2] https://www.zvv.ch/zvv/de/allgemeine-seiten/medienmitteilung...
Änderung bei ÖV-Tickets Billettverkauf in Zürcher Regionalbussen wird abgeschafft
Änderung bei ÖV-Tickets
Billettverkauf in Zürcher Regionalbussen wird abgeschafft
https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/billettverkauf-in-zuercher-regi...
I argue in this way since quite some time.
Same goes for Apple, Facebook etc. In Germany there is also some sort of compulsory contracting, for example in regards to energy supply.