Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by iammisc 1710 days ago
> The government didn't "allow" Facebook as though there is some permission system involved for setting up social media sites

And that's completely irrelevant to my argument which is that, since Facebook is the only public square by government fiat, it ought to be treated as such regardless of how it got there.

When government exercises eminent domain for the public interest, it does not worry about why it is the house it is seizing was placed there. It just notes that the house is there and then takes proper action to secure it's future aims for public benefit.

2 comments

Facebook is not the 'only' public square. Please, that's hyperbole, its not even close. Twitter, ticktok, reddit, snap and this very site are all public squares, with tremendous reach. Most of the video content on FB/Instagram come from TikTok, and in case you forgot the previous admin tried to shut them down because users on it organized against them.
> since Facebook is the only public square by government fiat

What?