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There are definitely some very powerful people and organizations (like the ADL) that DO want to censor the Internet of what they consider "hate speech" and "conspiracy theories"...
I find all the righteous indignation about the narrowing of content distributed over the internet amusing from Trump supporters after sitting by with their thumbs planted in their fannies while Trump's FCC Chairman Ajit Pai was dismantling net neutrality safeguards. While this proposed EO isn't exactly a textbook comparison, it sure is in the same area code....
This is the opinion of the CEO of Cloudflare, a company that controls 10% of the Internet's traffic. He probably knows a little bit more about it that you or I, yes?
Clouddflare is just one example of a large tech company that through their network infrastructure controls a very large part of the internent. Other examples include Google, Amazon.
To prevent DDOS you need to protect the origin IP, if you have the origin IP listed in DNS all traffic will be routed to that IP. Switching it to fail over server on the hosts network or anywhere else accomplishes very little given the scale and length of these attacks. If you have boatloads of cash to just handle the traffic sure you can do it. Changing the IP requires propagation which can take hours to days and it's still exposed to the attacker anyway.
When you are utilizing Cloudflare the public DNS listing is their IP, they have global network and can stop these attacks before it even gets to this country let alone to your server. At most your users may see minor 10 second interruption every few hours as Cloudflare screens the traffic. If for any reason the origin IP becomes compromised the attacker can circumvent Cloudflare and directly attack the IP which you then need to null route. When you are able to determine how it was compromised you only need to switch the IP of the machine, login into Cloudflare and point it new IP. There is no wait for propagation, you are right back in business.
Why are you so against private enterprise? Consumers and businesses have the right to choose their hosting providers based upon their needs and budgets; do you have a problem with capitalism as well?
You’re basically complaining that if one doesn’t have enough money to purchase the service they want, then they won’t have all of the protection of a high-end provider. Duh. Yammering on about DDOS does not change this fact.
You might as well complain that Mercedes (or some other high-end manufacturer) has a monopoly on crash safety because you can’t afford them. Ferrari has a monopoly on performance by your logic if all one can afford is a Corvette.
You have yet to prove that “they control an ever increasing amount of infrastructure”, nor that CloudFare/Google/ETC constitute a monopoly. Not to mention you’re conveniently ignoring the fact that CloudFare isn’t a service provider, and Google themselves only offer fiber in 11 cities total (further invalidating your claim that they “control infrastructure” as monopolies).
Last edited by subaru5555; 08-13-2019 at 04:50 AM..
Twitter and FB have usage policies that all users agree to and if those policies are violated, the user can be kicked off. It is not a matter of "users they don't like", it is a matter of violating an agreement that the user himself signed. The policies are nothing secret, they are publicly stated. This is all within the rights of those platforms. If people don't like it, don't use it.
Yes, but we can regulate their usage policies. Just like once upon a time businesses would have signs like "coloreds not welcome." These were also usage policies and public as well.
The fact of the matter is that FB, Twitter, Google and a few other large social media tech giants control the news that the public gets, and as a result can influence people's perceptions of reality making their control of content subject to public interest and regulation.
No way will that pass legal review. It instructs the FCC to monitor social media for political-correctness or risk losing liability waivers for content. SCOTUS has sided with extensive 1st Amendment protection and this would be over the line, I am sure. And it also is likely in violation of the 5th Amendment for due process since it administratively takes away a protected right without a hearing.
There is no one destination called "the Internet."
Everyone who has a computer that has network capabilities is part of a vast decentralized web. One computer or one server (a computer with a huge hard drive) can be taken down but no one can control every computer or every server and free speech is protected from government interference.
What I said is allowing a government bureaucrat to decide what a private company can censor is a very dangerous path, it's also impractical. On the other hand private companies that can go to great lengths to censor or partially censor what is available is no better whether it's infrastructure or content. This is an issue that cannot be ignored either. It's complicated problem with no easy solution.
There is also clear cases where some of these tech companies need heavy regulation for the services they are providing, specifically registrars. Registrars are accredited by ICANN and there is limited number of them, there is no amount of money in the world that can fix that issue.
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