Thread · 7 tweets · 19 Jul 2021

For the folks looking for a solution to the FB/YT/etc. problem: there's a platform out there that has 4.1 billion MAU, everyone can write to it, everyone can share. Sure, it has some issues and some disinformation — but not anywhere near the same scale. It's called email.

I mean it. I'm not saying that we should use email as is. SMTP is from 1981, a lot of the other technologies in it are similarly dated. It's lacking some features and has some architectural issues, and the fact that most know it through Gmail makes it look even less usable.

But the principle that makes it work is simple and can be reproduced: instead of having the Google/Facebook algorithmic media duopoly serve as gatekeepers deciding for everyone who gets amplified and who doesn't, everyone can decide locally who they personally amplify.

The policy prescription from this is straightforward: mandatory interoperability and full user control. You decouple data collection, infrastructure, recommendations, clients, advertising. Content producers and users can choose their ad networks — or pay.

You would need strict controls about a company operating in more than one of these markets and about setting defaults for who plugs into what. The financial backbone of the system needs to be quite fluid, but there are solutions for that nowadays.

There are some difficulties. For instance, making search interoperable would require making all of its parameters user-settable, which would be present implementation challenges. But with resolute policymakers setting a timeline for it, the techs can make it work.

There are more details to consider, of course, but the overarching point is this: we are choosing to live in a world in which tech doesn't work. There's no technical reason we can't choose to live in a world in which it does.