Corporate governance

We consider ourselves not just a company running a website where one can post links and discuss them, but the government of a new type of community.

Reddit Ex-CEO Yishan Wong on free speech

I was talking to a friend about Google today and it reminded me of this strange transition I've noticed where as internet companies get bigger they become more like governments. I think this isn't at all a coincidence, because the modern internet startup is built around many of the same concepts. A government has a monopoly and uses it to act as a gatekeeper for trade, enforce policy, and control membership. A big internet company is much the same, but its monopoly is a platform monopoly instead of a monopoly on force.

But I think a lot of companies don't recognise the moral dimension of their rapidly burgeoning power. The xkcd-style "banning you isn't violating free speech" idea, for example, seems fairly short sighted. Maybe banning you from a forum isn't taking away your free speech, but what about banning you from every forum? Or all of Facebook? Or everything owned by Google? Or the internet entirely? Hey, we're not taking away your free speech because that only applies to the state!

Unless we're willing to claim that large internet companies have no responsibility to the people whose lives, communications and digital property they govern, we have to consider expecting the same guarantees from them as we would from any other government. Maybe there is no legal requirement for Google to uphold free speech, or due process, or property rights. But maybe there should be.

As a company grows from being some scrappy startup to a foundational piece of internet infrastructure, I think its responsibilities need to grow along with it.