[throwaway4good]

"We don’t actually know why anyone in power does anything."

This is a not true. Dictators do long speeches. Often quite explicitly stating why they do what they do.

Funnily sometimes in democracies there is a bigger space betweeen what is done and what is communicated.

[simiones]

Those speeches usually contain about as much actual information as a corporate PR statement: they, at best, tell you why the dictator wants others to think they are doing something.

The only logical way to interpret the intentions of political leaders is to look at their effects. Anything else, even personal diaries, are likely full of interested reasoning and outright lies.

[throwaway4good]

If we are talking about the stuff here (regulation of internet companies) there plenty of speeches, 5-year plans, writings in party newspapers that explains the thinking behind the actions.

[andy_ppp]

Okay so is the article right? It’s not about smashing innovation but saying popularity is the wrong metric and (CCP) power should be the driving force behind technology development? Do the powerful really always state there objectives obviously like some dastardly Bond villain?