* > You don't think that giving the government (or entities even less accountable) complete control over online information, discussion, and commerce, plus an almost perfect 24/7 surveillance system, might weaken liberal democracy? *

The government doesn't have this control, nor do any of the FAANG companies. I know quite a lot of people who are online without the use of any of FAANG equipment or resources. If you granted these entities this power then you did so of your own choosing. Whether that was wise or not is an entirely different question. Whether it might weaken liberal democracy, I argue no. Liberal democracy is being attacked by our long-term enemies. They're using new tools and our ignorance to have us rot from within but it's a mistake to blame technology for what was done by the hands of our enemy. Lenin turned out to be correct, the capitalists really did sell them the rope they would hang us with. Perhaps I see this in a different perspective due to my being a cold war kid.

> The government doesn't have this control, nor do any of the FAANG companies.

That's correct, they don't have complete control yet, and I agree that right now liberal democracy is being attacked by illiberal authoritarian regimes, as it has been for a long time.

However, I think the point of this article is that we are also in the middle of a war for general-purpose computing, and that war might end with governments and/or corporations in a much stronger position than they are now in terms of censorship and surveillance.

Already we are seeing isolated incidents of people being rendered less free because of the control that modern platforms grant to authorities, and I don't think it is helpful to blame the victims for choosing to use mainstream operating systems or social media sites that end up destroying their livelihoods, for example.