> Only difference is who is doing the censoring.

It's a universe-sized difference though. If a platform owner is doing it you can somply go to another platform. If a democratically elected goverment is doing it you can change the government though it's much harder. Or at least you can soothe yourself that it's being done for the benefit if the people as "the people" sees it. And if an authoritarian government is doing it, you are screwed.

▲

lakeviewterrace 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

What if the democratically elected government is emailing their pals at the platform owners to do the censoring on their behalf?

"The family had a lot of buffers."

Because this was definitely happening during COVID.

▲

grumbel 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Platforms naturally coalesce into near monopolies due to network effects. It's far easier to get rid of a government than it is to get rid of something like Youtube at this point.

▲

znpy 4 hours ago | parent [-]

> It's far easier to get rid of a government than it is to get rid of something like Youtube at this point.

the weird thing is that ironically, the people hurt by "youtube" (whatever "youtube" is, i'm not referring to youtube.com specifically) are often the ones both complaining and keeping it alive.

talking about youtube.com specifically, i've seen many complaints about it over the years, yet essentially only two guys (Linus Sebastian and Luke Lafreniere from Linus Media Group) are actually developing an alternative platform (https://www.floatplane.com/).

Essentially all other youtubers are still begging you in tears to "hit like, subscribe and ring that bell icon".

the same also happens for other platforms. it's so... weird ?

▲

Analemma_ 3 hours ago | parent [-]

YouTube has a moat a mile wide and ten thousand feet deep because their product is insanely expensive to provide. Think about it: they let you upload a basically-unlimited amount of video and then they store it for you forever, for free.

Every competitor which has tried to do this has been eaten alive by the costs of bandwidth and storage, even if they have a deep-pocketed corporate backer (e.g. Twitch will not let you store unlimited VODs like YouTube will). Some companies have managed to flank YouTube and carve out a little niche like short-form video, but I think building an actual YouTube competitor with the features people demand (again, unlimited uploads and eternal storage, for free) is more-or-less impossible.

▲

BoxwoodSeed 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Didn't torrents solve this problem before Youtube was even invented? Also, it looks like Bilibili is going to expand internationally and they have a pretty good chance of eating Youtube's lunch.

	▲	inkysigma an hour ago \| parent [-]
		I don’t really see how torrents solved this problem as so many seeders for any file could simply disappear. Not to mention, the significantly higher bandwidth costs of higher resolution video nowadays. I’m less familiar with bilibili, but afaik it doesn’t do many of the revenue-sharing programs that YouTube does, so might have trouble attracting the same creators. They also have so far been pretty regional and so I’m not sure if we can use them as a sign of success yet.

▲

sneak an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

“simply go to another platform” stopped working years ago when Apple took it upon themselves to decide which platforms you are allowed to install.

RIP Tumblr

▲

BoingBoomTschak 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

"Democracy Just Werks^tm" is starting to look like "The Free Market will solve it" more and more with each passing day...

▲

billfor 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The free market may eventually get bored...

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” C.S. Lewis

▲

flexagoon 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

"Democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried"

	▲	BoxwoodSeed 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Not too sure about that. It seems that stuff that is being demonized in democracies has a better approval rating among the people. For example absolute monarchy, as was exercised by Louis XIV. Democracy sucks pretty hard. No one is held accountable for failure. Puppets with no real power get blamed and replaced to placate the population. If your pockets are deep enough you can buy laws.