[futureshock]

I think "ultrarich" is far too tame. He controls a company that mediates our very relationship to "facts" and information. Together with Facebook, Google controls what the world thinks about. You can see that power being exercised forcefully over the past year in regards to vaccines, politics and conspiracies.

[camillomiller]

I think this comment won't go down well with the HN crowd, although I think that from a simple factual perspective you are quite right.

[dredmorbius]

The first two sentences are far more sensible than the third.

[dougmwne]

Agree that it's a bigger claim, so let me explain the mechanism. People think and talk about whatever is in their environment. Companies, marketers, PR agencies and political strategists understand this well and use it to pack the news and media we consume with the messages they profit from having us talk about. Maybe you agree with the message or disagree, but you will be likely taking part in the conversation. Often these topics are not even personally relevant to us, far outside our sphere of influence, but we talk about them anyway because that's what has been injected in the public sphere.

Together, Google and Facebook control an enormous percent of all information distribution. They make a show as being a neutral platform, only responding to the preferences of the user, but that is more and more obviously not true. I am not a republican, but I think their fear of getting cut off the internet is legit, because if you're not on the internet, your're out of the conversation.