The Digital Monopolies of Content and Interaction

The digital age has brought about a great immersion into a virtual world. People are spending so much of their time online. We can connect with others in an instant. The digital world monopolizes much of our time, and companies are also monopolizing the digital landscape.

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The phone surpassed letter communication, and the Internet has exploded the reach of communication in all aspects of our lives. Phone companies still have a monopoly on the physical infrastructure they laid out, but are forced to share it under anti-monopoly laws.

The Internet has given us much freedom for our voices to be heard by people all over the world, unlike anything ever seen before. Social media has rocketed social interaction into the digital realm, giving our voices a platform that acts like a marketplace for us to meet and interact.

But as we're seeing, the platforms we have fed with our attention are beginning to censor and block content and people from interacting in their marketplaces. We created their success. All the people who joined up and used their product or service have contributed to making them millions and billions of dollars. The number of people who use Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Spotify, iTunes, or any other app are the reason for the apps success. Without people using the app, there is no app success.

As such, the more people who have joined a service, have propelled it into greater success and dominance of a certain online niche. Apple's iTunes and Spotify have the music niche right now. YouTube has the video niche. Facebook and Twitter have their social media sharing niches. Amazon has the niche of online buying and hosting. Netflix has the niche of movies and TV shows.

Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google are the top 5 tech companies, and are commonly referred to as FAANG. They each are a dominant force in our society. They dominate their respective niches. They act as a monopoly on their niches.

Regarding social media and communication with others, being able to speak freely and the right to free speech is important. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube hold a dominance of social communication online. They have a digital monopoly over digital means of communication by owning the marketplace where people congregate.

They are all private companies who have made their success from allowing people to join and growing huge. Then decided they don't want certain people to remain. Imagine in the early days, if they would have done what they did now. Would they have become the successes that they are? Or would people have not joined knowing they could be censored or banned from a platform at anytime?

As private companies, they can choose what they want to do. You have your private property, and you can choose who you let in to your house, who can step for on your land, etc. The same applies to all private enterprises. You can refuse service to others.

But the tech giants have created marketplaces and monopolies of digital communication. People have become to dependent on these platform for communicating every day. When let people in at the beginning, they had no issue with what they were talking about. They let them stay when they could have booted them out or refused entry, and that would have probably resulted in a failure of their large success which they now have.

As such, despite being a private enterprise, they are beholden to their initial choices people in who spoke on certain topics, and owe much of their success to this freedom of entry and freedom of speech. To make an about turn and turn on those who brought in many viewers or readers, is a betrayal of sorts. It betrays the original rules that let people join and create the success they now have.

We are all private entities, and people can also choose what do, such as to stay or leave these platforms. I think that for most people, they would need alternatives, or else censorship be damned, they are going to stay where they can talk to all their friends in one place, get all their info in one place, and exchange in the attention economy. It's all far too convenient for most to even want to leave in protest.

ALternative need to be created to entice people to leave and go to something better. MySpace used to dominate, then Facebook came along and everyone went there. It may have been the way the site was designed, or the features, either way a shift happened. Can another shift happen?

YouTube has a competing platform in blockchain apps like dTube, dLive and even non-blockchain sits like RealVideo allow censored users to share their content again. But those all lack the appeal of a larger marketplace for congregation at this time. Maybe that will change as time goes by, as it did for Facebook. But there needs to be a reason for people to leave, like there was for MySpace to Facebook.

Steem is a great alternative, but it seems the feature-set or ease of use is lacking. There is no central hub for everything to be conveniently located. You have to go all over the place, to go on this site or that to get more features. There are so many apps, but the lack central access makes it less accessible. Is Steem really going to be a Facebook killer? Or is that a dream? Are things too complicated to ever get a mainstream appeal?

Are monopolies free will voluntary agreements between a company and it's clients?

If Facebook, Twitter and YouTube hold monopolies online, is it all voluntarily created between people who choose to give them that power?

Is there a right, duty or responsibility to break up the monopoly using a more powerful force, like that of the state? Or are they allowed to do as they wish and monopolize their online niches because people have voluntarily chosen to give them that power?

Aren't they allows to do what they want as long as they don't harm others, and people are the one's who will decide if they want to continue to support an enterprise that engages in those actions?

Are they to be held accountable for their censorship?

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Related posts from this week:

Weaponizing Tech Giants for Censorship	The Facebook, Google/YouTube, Apple, Spotify and Stitcher Conspiracy Against InfoWars/AlexJones

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Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.

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