James GrimmelmannDec 17, 2022

Is it an antitrust violation for Twitter to block Mastodon links?

Under current law, a good starting point is LiveUniverse v. MySpace, No. CV 06-6994-AHM (RZx), 2007 U.S. Dist LEXIS 43739, 2007 WL 6865852 (N.D. Cal. June 4, 2007), which held that MySpace could disable user-posted links to vidilife.com. Per the court, it was not a Sherman Act § 2 violation because MySpace had no duty to deal with vidiLife, and because MySpace wasn’t preventing vidiLife from competing in the relevant market.

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@jtlg @TinaThePerson no it’s a private company. Elon could just buy it and turn it off if he wanted to. Anyone that is on Twitter is allowed there because he either wants them there or is ambivalent to their presence, anyone who can speak there can only do so when he wants them to or because he doesn’t perceive them as worth his concern. When that changes those people are banned and silenced on his platform
Dec 17, 2022 at 6:05pmWeb