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We rely on #Google, #Gmail, #YouTube, #Substack, #Facebook and #Twitter (before #Musk bought it) to function online, and our governments have essentially outsourced all kinds of functions to many of them.

Historically, new tech has started private and then becomes public, like fire departments, which would be the logical progression of, eg, web browsers, but there’s basically zero political will to create those right now.

The fact these private companies are monopolies is part of the problem, too. Public services often look like monopolies—roads, libraries, bus systems—but we have *some* ability to influence them.

Google and Substack are tyrannies, to use #NoamChomsky ’s term, and as #CoryDoctorow points out, all the disciplinary forces on private companies have been weakened or stripped away: eg, unions and antitrust.

Some of those companies arguably ought to be public services, others should be non-profits and/or broken up into actual competition.

Even better would be to federate or collectivize them. I’d rather be on #Mastodon than #Twitter or #Bluesky. I’d rather a #Substack-like service that’s independent of government and owned by the journalists.

This shouldn’t even be controversial. These would have been perfectly “normal” things to do a mere 50 years ago, but #LateCapitalism / #Neoliberalism would call it #radical based only on the fact that no hierarchical corporation would profit. Because that’s the new rule. If there’s no profit to be made, then we “can’t” do it.

We deserve better.