Paypal doesn't have competition? It sure does. There are other payment processors. Gab could not find one that would do business with them. Why? The payment processors were threatened by other companies using their services and even banks and systems like VISA. Remember VISA/MC cutting off wikileaks donations?
Just like the Trump Camp had white shoe law firms quit on them. THEIR big powerful corporate customers told them they'd dump the Law Firm if they rep'd Trump.
AWS server farms have competition.
Matze of Parler said in a post he was told by other server farms that other Big Tech Companies pressured them not to provide services to Parler on pain of losing THEIR business. Gab had to build their own everything from scratch.
But it's not just Paypal and Amazon that blocked Gab. They got other payment processors and server farms to do the same.
These are private companies happily cutting off free speech, eliminating competition. They can do it because no other force can stop them.
I've also noticed a lot of companies from WaPo to Sports Franchises to Twitter don't even care about the money, only the power. Gilette and the NFL will insult their own major demographic - middle aged Males - to push a Political Line.
"The payment processors were threatened by other companies using their services and even banks and systems like VISA. "
My point is, why couldn't Gab have their own payment processing in an easy manner? Finance is one of the most regulated industries in existence. As I keep bringing up, KYC, and AML laws are MAJOR hurdles for competition to PayPal, and VISA. The currency itself is a regulation. All of these exist to keep competition out. Otherwise Wikileaks would just start their own payment processing, and to some degree they did with bitcoin, because bitcoin allows them to go around regulations.
"THEIR big powerful corporate customers told them they'd dump the Law Firm if they rep'd Trump."
What would they need these lawyers for if not to protect themselves from all the ridiculous government laws?
"AWS server farms have competition."
Yes, and they have multi billion dollar contracts with the government, so they are tax payer subsidized. As well as the retail side of the business is subsidized with tax breaks, and the USPS.
"Well, if they won't rent you an office, just buy up a multi-million property, learn how to build a 10-story steel and glass building, do the riveting yourself, etc. and if the office supply company cuts you off, just buy forestry rights and start your own paper mill so you can have copy paper. If Men's Warehouse bans you, get a sewing machine and learn to sew your own suit jacket."
At some point, this assertion becomes ridiculous. Society is advanced because of specialization.
A user-facing social media company having to build out every step of necessary infrastructure is inefficient instead of buying ready made solutions these companies are more than happy to provide for others is strange. Having to literally make every step yourself is definitely out of reach for most small start ups financially - and it's not government regulations preventing them from buying the ready made technology from willing sellers.
The sellers are unwilling. Why?
It's also very clear that the harassment is ideological, which shouldn't be happening under Libertarian theory: Companies should be profit-maximizing. These companies are actually losing money - millions and potentially billions - for ideological, non economic reasons. Why is that happening? Amazon is NOT a social media site and not competitive with Gab or Parler. Neither is Paypal a competitor being a payment processor. Both Amazon and Paypal have everything to gain and nothing to lose financially by supporting Gab and Parler.
Parler isn't down because of Nancy Pelosi, it's down because Amazon and other service providers have freely and voluntarily colluded to cut it off from infrastructure. Gab wasn't kept down and often offline or barely functional because of McConnell and Schumer, but because payment processors, server companies, and other Big Tech infrastructure firms kept them down.
The chalkboard theory is losing to Real Life Events which are playing out the opposite way of what theory says should happen.
""Well, if they won't rent you an office, just buy up a multi-million property, learn how to build a 10-story steel and glass building, do the riveting yourself, etc. and if the office supply company cuts you off, just buy forestry rights and start your own paper mill so you can have copy paper. If Men's Warehouse bans you, get a sewing machine and learn to sew your own suit jacket."
At some point, this assertion becomes ridiculous. Society is advanced because of specialization."
Yes, it is ridiculous because it's a straw man. My point isn't that you do it all yourself, but that there would be no barriers to competing firms providing the same service. I'm not saying you can make your own jacket, and if anything is a perfect example of MY argument, not yours, because there's zero regulation to purchasing jackets. So let's say hypothetically speaking, Mens warehouse bans you from buying jackets. So, you just send your friend Bob in to buy one for you. Problem solved. But with PayPal, if you ask your friend Bob to run up a payment processing server, the FBI is going to bust down his door for being an unlicensed money transmitter.
Paypal doesn't have competition? It sure does. There are other payment processors. Gab could not find one that would do business with them. Why? The payment processors were threatened by other companies using their services and even banks and systems like VISA. Remember VISA/MC cutting off wikileaks donations?
Just like the Trump Camp had white shoe law firms quit on them. THEIR big powerful corporate customers told them they'd dump the Law Firm if they rep'd Trump.
AWS server farms have competition.
Matze of Parler said in a post he was told by other server farms that other Big Tech Companies pressured them not to provide services to Parler on pain of losing THEIR business. Gab had to build their own everything from scratch.
But it's not just Paypal and Amazon that blocked Gab. They got other payment processors and server farms to do the same.
These are private companies happily cutting off free speech, eliminating competition. They can do it because no other force can stop them.
I've also noticed a lot of companies from WaPo to Sports Franchises to Twitter don't even care about the money, only the power. Gilette and the NFL will insult their own major demographic - middle aged Males - to push a Political Line.
"The payment processors were threatened by other companies using their services and even banks and systems like VISA. "
My point is, why couldn't Gab have their own payment processing in an easy manner? Finance is one of the most regulated industries in existence. As I keep bringing up, KYC, and AML laws are MAJOR hurdles for competition to PayPal, and VISA. The currency itself is a regulation. All of these exist to keep competition out. Otherwise Wikileaks would just start their own payment processing, and to some degree they did with bitcoin, because bitcoin allows them to go around regulations.
"THEIR big powerful corporate customers told them they'd dump the Law Firm if they rep'd Trump."
What would they need these lawyers for if not to protect themselves from all the ridiculous government laws?
"AWS server farms have competition."
Yes, and they have multi billion dollar contracts with the government, so they are tax payer subsidized. As well as the retail side of the business is subsidized with tax breaks, and the USPS.
"Well, if they won't rent you an office, just buy up a multi-million property, learn how to build a 10-story steel and glass building, do the riveting yourself, etc. and if the office supply company cuts you off, just buy forestry rights and start your own paper mill so you can have copy paper. If Men's Warehouse bans you, get a sewing machine and learn to sew your own suit jacket."
At some point, this assertion becomes ridiculous. Society is advanced because of specialization.
A user-facing social media company having to build out every step of necessary infrastructure is inefficient instead of buying ready made solutions these companies are more than happy to provide for others is strange. Having to literally make every step yourself is definitely out of reach for most small start ups financially - and it's not government regulations preventing them from buying the ready made technology from willing sellers.
The sellers are unwilling. Why?
It's also very clear that the harassment is ideological, which shouldn't be happening under Libertarian theory: Companies should be profit-maximizing. These companies are actually losing money - millions and potentially billions - for ideological, non economic reasons. Why is that happening? Amazon is NOT a social media site and not competitive with Gab or Parler. Neither is Paypal a competitor being a payment processor. Both Amazon and Paypal have everything to gain and nothing to lose financially by supporting Gab and Parler.
Parler isn't down because of Nancy Pelosi, it's down because Amazon and other service providers have freely and voluntarily colluded to cut it off from infrastructure. Gab wasn't kept down and often offline or barely functional because of McConnell and Schumer, but because payment processors, server companies, and other Big Tech infrastructure firms kept them down.
The chalkboard theory is losing to Real Life Events which are playing out the opposite way of what theory says should happen.
""Well, if they won't rent you an office, just buy up a multi-million property, learn how to build a 10-story steel and glass building, do the riveting yourself, etc. and if the office supply company cuts you off, just buy forestry rights and start your own paper mill so you can have copy paper. If Men's Warehouse bans you, get a sewing machine and learn to sew your own suit jacket."
At some point, this assertion becomes ridiculous. Society is advanced because of specialization."
Yes, it is ridiculous because it's a straw man. My point isn't that you do it all yourself, but that there would be no barriers to competing firms providing the same service. I'm not saying you can make your own jacket, and if anything is a perfect example of MY argument, not yours, because there's zero regulation to purchasing jackets. So let's say hypothetically speaking, Mens warehouse bans you from buying jackets. So, you just send your friend Bob in to buy one for you. Problem solved. But with PayPal, if you ask your friend Bob to run up a payment processing server, the FBI is going to bust down his door for being an unlicensed money transmitter.