Its name is Jack Dorsey.
The social media company led by CEO Jack Dorsey [that would be Twitter for those of you playing along at home] said in a Tuesday blog post that it will not allow users to like, reply, share or retweet offending tweets, but it will let users quote-tweet them so they can still express their own opinions.
Dorsey has reserved to himself the right to decide how an opinion is expressed on his medium. Quote-tweet a tweet he finds personally objectionable but not simply retweet it?
Under the guise that the twitterer, within Dorsey’s magnanimity, will be allowed to express his own opinion through quote-tweeting. Never mind that liking, replying, sharing, or retweeting also are expressions of the relaying twitterer’s opinion. That’s not allowed. Jack Dorsey, in all of his awesomeness, will decide how a user must express himself.
Free speech, including its manner of expression, is what Jack Dorsey personally approves. It’s nothing at all to do with any endowment of inalienable rights. Dorsey Knows Better.
Twitter is, like Facebook, a private entity, as opposed to a public utility. They benefit enormously from network effect, of course, limiting the practical possibilities for competitors. Nonetheless, if I privately provide a platform for public speech, I am not obligated to allow any- and everyone to use it.
Antitrust is a poor vehicle to ensure all voice have access of some sort. Reducing barriers to competition is better, IMO.
Antitrust action is intended to facilitate competition. Our laws do not outlaw monopoly power, they only outlaw the abuse of it. It is, after all, the abuse that is anticompetitive.
After all, even with economic barriers to entry, monopolies qua monopolies get busted by other businesses with other, better, ideas. See, for instance, how the internet busted up the oligopoly of land line communications.
Eric Hines