[liberationtech] Web Inventor Releases Ambitious Plan to Take Back Net

[Urban Martin]

Curious to hear what others think, but I assumed it was related to social
contract theory https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_contract

On Thu, Nov 28, 2019, 12:19 PM Thomas Delrue <thomas at epistulae.net> wrote:

> On 11/24/19 10:31 PM, Yosem Companys wrote:
> > The contract is non-binding, however. And funders and partners in the
> > endeavor include Google and Facebook, whose data-collecting business
> > models and sensation-rewarding algorithms have been blamed for
> > exacerbating online toxicity.
>
> I'm a little confused by the choice of words in the term "contract for
> the web"... Can someone explain to me what exactly a non-binding
> contract is?
> The first 7 words of the Wikipedia entry for 'contract' are literally "A
> contract is a legally binding agreement". How can a 'legally binding
> agreement' be non-binding?
> MW has as its first entry for 'contract' the following "a binding
> agreement between two or more persons or parties especially : one
> legally enforceable".
>
> Forgive my cynicism, but what exactly will this do or accomplish if it
> isn't binding, except to make some folks feel warm and fuzzy for signing
> something that will be forgotten in a heartbeat?
> Surely, this is nothing more than a PR stunt? It's about as vacuous as
> the statement "Don't be evil" (by google) or "We care about your
> privacy" (by facebook), no?
>
> Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that TBL has started this conversation, as
> it is one to be had. However, without the binding-ness, the good
> intentions and desires, outlined in the 'contract', will go no-where.
> Unfortunately, we don't need more conversation on this subject, we need
> actual change, and that requires enforceability.
>
> If the purpose of making it non-enforceable was to make sure entities
> like google or facebook signed as well, then I ask "why? Why do they
> have to sign as well"? Especially if they are the highest probability
> candidates to violate the intention of the document. Why would it have
> been important for them to sign something that will make no difference?
> Why not leave them excluded and let them be on display for the predatory
> entities that they are?
>
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