[Al-Khwarizmi]

The thing is that "government = bad" is typical American mindset. As another non-US, non-Chinese citizen, the fact that those megacorporations are independent from the government makes it worse, not better.

At least governments respond to their people (especially in the case of democracies, much less so for authoritarian governments, but they still have to worry a minimum to avoid revolution). Corporations respond to profit only, everything else be damned.

[bko]

When Facebook starts opening concentration camps, I'm likely to agree with you.

> especially in the case of democracies, much less so for authoritarian governments, but they still have to worry a minimum to avoid revolution

What do you think is more likely to still be relevant in 100 years from now, China or Facebook? I think a 'revolution' is more likely to affect Facebook than China

[formerkrogemp]

> When Facebook starts opening concentration camps, I'm likely to agree with you

I wonder. If your product is used to recruit soldiers, spread propaganda, disseminate hate speech, and organize and deploy said concentration camps or their equivalent, are you liable and culpable? If you've known for years and done next to nothing about sectarian violence and genocide, are you still blameless? When moderation could have been hired and trained for an immaterial amount of profit? SEA wages are notoriously low in dollar terms. Poorly implemented machine learning models don't suffice to halt genocide. Greed, ignorance, malevolence, sloth, arrogance. Take your pick.

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/kill-facebook-fail...

https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/digital-threats/r...

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/technology/myanmar-facebo...

[echaozh]

Hmm, you know corporations can run prisons, and they can fight in wars with mercenaries.

[dnissley]

If a security hole was found in Google and in the US government, which do you think would respond in a way that would make that less likely to happen in the future?

[pempem]

I would strongly disagree

It is not that government = bad.

It is that government having data which allows for influence of people == destruction of democracy as the government is supposed to reflect the will of people rather than the other way around. It is an incredibly short path to: autocracy, oligarchies, dictatorships, etc.

[arroz]

government is not always bad

However government knowing about your private stuff is

Homophobic governments shouldn’t know about gay peoples privacy

Christian governments shouldn’t know about women’s abortion

The government can help, it shouldn’t get in the way — which is very much what can do under a dictatorship