High-Tech Empires

Ben Thompson →

In the long run, though, it is very problematic that such a powerful player in our democracy has no accountability. Liberty is not simply about laws, or culture, it is also about structure, and it is right to be concerned about the centralized nature of companies like Facebook.

Manton Reece →

Platforms that have as many problems as Facebook does can always be improved, but by design they can never be good enough because their size alone is one of the problems.

A difference in scale can become a difference in kind. Facebook and other large Tech companies have more users than most nations have citizens. We look down on autocratic governments, and will hopefully continue to do so. We can't forget that these large corporations are a new form of the same thing.

We have a words to describe organizations of large enough size that exert control over vastly different groups of people and that aren't answerable to their constituents. We call them autocracies; we call them empires.


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