Thread · 6 tweets · 6 Oct 2020

I've been wondering if those threats to Australia aren't going to go down as the moment the platforms overplayed their hands. Not just because it was outrageous and brazen, they do that a lot. But because of what it manifests in relationship to existing states.

I believe that platforms are behaving as proto-states. Not in a metaphorical sense: in the very concrete sense of control through and from legibility, as in 'Seeing Like A State'. This could emerge because cyberspace has actually been something of a new *space*.

If monopoly engineers sometimes feel like bureaucrats, with grand theories that make no sense to developers on the ground and imaginary enemies (which they can see through "the data") it's simply because they are. Bureaucrat/priests of the Empire.

Now, this could possibly work if folks at the monopolies saw it that way and handled it accordingly (ie. not by reading about Roman emperors or Alexander the Great). They could build relationships by acting in a way that makes sense to other states. And win.

These days, states are generally OK with other states. They hang out. They commerce. That is, until you fuck with Australia. You don't get to fuck with Australia. If you do, you make it clear that you could fuck with many of the other states, too.

Anyway, this concludes "Internet Geopolitics With Cocktails" for the night!