[scarface74]

> Imagine that every place in the city was privately owned, and again, 90 percent of those places were managed by No Politics Holdings (International) Ltd, and they did not permit political discussion.

And there is no monopoly on being able to set up a web server at a colo and create your own social media website where like minded people can listen to themselves - ie Parlor.

[4bpp]

There kind of is, insofar as you will need Cloudflare if you don't want anyone willing to rent some botnet time to have a veto on your presence and most likely need MasterCard/Visa to pay for your colo. Both of those are subject to the US government, the latter enthusiastically, and have demonstrated a willingness to refuse service based on political preference.

[scarface74]

There are at least 10 CDN providers in the US.

Mastercard and Visa don’t habitually keep people from using their networks to make payments. They may stop businesses from accepting payments.

Besides, the “true believers” are willing to send money orders and get other funding.

People these days with unpopular views lack imagination. The entire civil rights movement thrived against a much more hostile environment than Gab. No one is burning down their houses, lynching them etc

[woojoo666]

Monopolies don't need to have all the market share, there just needs to be no viable substitutes. And a social network that is tiny with barely any content, is not a viable substitute. Another characteristic is high barriers to entry, which for social networks, includes overcoming the network effect as well as dealing with Cloudflare, Mastercard, etc. It doesn't matter if there are work arounds, if the cost of these workarounds is high, it's a monopoly.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly

[scarface74]

Movements are started by people creating their own “networks”. You know people were getting their voices heard way before social media was a thing.

The entire legal (at least in states where they are legal) weed industry has a viable business without banks, credit cards, etc.

If you truly believe in your message and enough other people are interested, you don’t let minor roadblocks stand in your way.

The civil rights movement didn’t boo hoo that things were “hard to work around”.

[woojoo666]

> The civil rights movement didn’t boo hoo that things were “hard to work around”.

I'm quite confident that the civil rights movement did complain that things were hard to work around. That didn't stop the movement of course. Just like people are still fighting the big tech monopoly, despite the uphill battle