Amazon, Twitter, Facebook, and Trump:

I am very happy that those companies have made it harder for Donald Trump to destroy our republic in a fit of pique because he doesn't believe he lost the election.

I am also very concerned by the amount of power those companies have.

Yes, there's some tension between those views. Welcome to the 2020s.

Seriously, having so few companies effectively controlling so much of social media is problematic. That's not a consequence of 230; it's a consequence of their size and the barriers facing market newcomers.

Parler and Gab are good examples of the uphill battle that new market entrants face. Both were having substantial difficulty attracting a sufficient user base to function in a world where the giants suck up the oxygen. Both made similar bad decisions.

They tried to build by opening up to groups no longer welcome on Twitter and Facebook. Those groups weren't large enough to sustain them long term, and were so utterly toxic that they killed any chances of broader growth.

And Parler was still dependent on Amazon.

Could they have gone different routes? Sure. There have been some newcomers who have been disruptive enough to claw their way to success. But they've got an uphill battle.

The question is what to do about it - and what can be done.

230 reform is a dumb approach. The problems are caused mostly by the size and power of the companies, not by the liability shield.

But beyond that, I've got little in the way of solutions to offer. Just hoping smarter people have ideas.

This is fair, by the way. Being associated with incitement to overthrow the government is toxic to most companies. That's one of the reasons that I'm not terribly concerned about Trump being deplatformed. https://twitter.com/dbarawn/status/1348456619525480449?s=20

I think Andrew summed up my concern better than I did. I'm not as much worried about the measures that were put in place as I am by how rapidly so few players were able to transform so much of the landscape. https://twitter.com/andrew_lessman/status/1348455727417978883?s=20