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by throwawaysea 1862 days ago
We need laws that prevent deplatforming / censorship on these large technology platforms, once they reach a certain number of users. These practices effectively oppress people and limits them at the whims of those who control the platform or the loudest/most powerful voice they pressures them. Since larger platforms are as influential as governments we need to recognize them as such and guard our society against them. Now that this issue is affecting those who have at times been proponents of deplatforming as well, I hope there’s broader support for appropriate regulation protecting the rights of individuals online.
4 comments

This is Venmo complying with the law, if you read the article. It’s not their own initiative - they’re just complying with US export restrictions that make funding certain overseas organizations illegal.
A much better solution, that doesn't violate the right to free association and private property, is for the government to fund the development of open-source peer-to-peer electronic cash systems.

Such systems would be censorship resistant by design, which is a far more robust solution to deplatforming than legislation written by Congressional representatives and their staff, that attempts to use one-size-fits-all rules determining under what conditions deplatforming is justified, or appointing all-powerful committees/agencies that make these determinations on a case-by-case basis, and thereby become the target of regulatory capture campaigns.

At least in the context of platform-to-business interactions, the EU has done much of this (in the context of kicking someone off a platform they sell through) in Regulation 2019/1150.

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32...

They don't necessarily go as far as you're looking for (and I'd agree that some platforms are effectively becoming societal infrastructure), but it's a start. I'm not aware of anyone really putting these to use yet, suggesting the remedies aren't helpful enough or accessible enough.

You will never get these laws because they do not benefit the big corporate and state actors. These people need to learn to not depend on a single point of failure and to avoid companies which are known offenders like Paypal for example.