Get Over It

I wish to preface my remarks with the admonition that I am no fan of suppressing First Amendment liberties.  Having spent four decades in the financial services industry where such rights are limited by regulation and company policy this is serious stuff.  I chaffed under the restrictions.  

Nevertheless, following the suspension of Donald Trump's various online accounts there has been no small amount of feigned Facebook outrage and righteous indignation.  Much of it a litany of predictable backlash from predictable sycophants - including cut and paste content that truthfully is a waste of valuable bandwidth.  

Some of it was thoughtful and persuasive.  The 'thinkers' can be taken seriously.  

And as a consequence, I 'think' it is useful to revisit the backstory - including the doctrine of what a common carrier is – and isn’t. 

A common carrier is a public or private company that transports goods and people for a fee (airlines, railroads come to mind) or provides services to people for a fee (utilities and telecommunication companies come to mind).   What they have in common is that they must provide service to anyone willing to pay the freight (the fee). The only exception is grounds for refusal (no shirt, no shoes, no service comes to mind). 

Twitter, Facebook, Google, etc. do not charge a fee for service. They are for-profit companies that gather data about their users in order to sell advertising.  In Twitter’s case this also includes a stylized Town Square of the Internet.  The bottom line is that they are internet platforms that mine your data should you choose to participate.  As a consequence they are self-regulated.

Between you and me if you are troubled by this gathering of data it is a small matter to engage a technology solution to counter it by cloaking your internet presence and deflecting the probing.  But I digress. 

These platforms do provide some quasi-public functions.  And while it is true that private companies who deliver public services are generally regulated, or obligated to provide universal service under common-carrier law (wired and wireless communications companies come to mind) - internet platforms have none of those commitments.  What they have are Terms of Service – which means they can more or less block, ban or suspend anyone whenever and for whatever reason they choose. 

That may sound arbitrary or capricious and these companies may have clumsy, lame and broken moderation systems; nevertheless, these Terms of Service function as law in the absence of any common carrier regulations. 

One of the things I like most about my Facebook account is the access I have to public and private groups for which I have an affinity.  This would include hunting and fishing, grilling, smoking, cooking, high school alumni, family, local and military history, astronomy, photography and going back to Germany all the communities I've lived since birth to the present.  One of my faves is a group dedicated to Gary Larson cartoons.  

These groups exist solely at the behest of Facebook - and must comply with Facebook's Terms of Service.  If they do not comply Facebook can shut them down.  

I can participate in these groups as a follower and/or contributor to their content if inclined.  And the moderators can boot me off the group if I do not comply with the Group Terms of Service.  Translation: if I post something off-topic, is divisive, outrageous or otherwise not compliant with the rules I will be exiled.

As the owner of this blog I have to comply with Google's Terms of Service.  If I behave badly Google can shut me down.  And if a reader posts something on my blog that in my opinion is divisive, outrageous or otherwise not compliant with my own arbitrary and capricious terms of service I can delete the content and even block the reader. 

That's the nice thing about not being a common carrier - on the interweb sometimes life is unfair (the wild west comes to mind).

Get over it. 

Follow this link to an alternative opinion piece over at the Wall Street Journal.