Public Spaces, Private Infrastructure →
YouTube, commercial services, strong hosting - and activists in Egypt and Burma
“Here’s the tension. I’d love to be able to offer a stern warning that we risk our freedoms of speech by allowing critical debates that should take place in the public sphere be hosted on private platforms. I’d love to urge everyone to to think twice about whether they want YouTube, Vimeo, DailyMotion or Facebook to have veto power over their expression. But realistically, these platforms are better equipped to protect the speech of the people I’m trying to help than many alternatives. And they’re the platforms many activists are going to seek out when they need to express themselves because they’re vastly more visible and well known than human rights-focused alternatives.”
