zlacker

Yes, but Google and Facebook are not public utilities, nor should they be.

>>nvahal+(OP)
Why not? The qualification being for public utility should be "is this basic infrastructure humans need to live now?". And the answer is yes. Facebook controls most of the big public speaking forums and google controls so much and in so many spaces that it would be foolish for me to even try listing.

I hope in america public utilities are not only controlled by the government. Because where I am from public utilities can be publicly or privately controlled. As long as they are all playing by the same rules many private companies have made lots of money providing public utilities.

I don't see the impediment here.

>>newswa+33
In reality, there is no impediment to designating Google as a public utility other than the elected representatives making it so.

>>newswa+33
> I hope in america public utilities are not only controlled by the government. Because where I am from public utilities can be publicly or privately controlled. As long as they are all playing by the same rules many private companies have made lots of money providing public utilities.

Water/Sewage and Trash are typically run by the city/county government, although it is common for the actual work to be handled by a contracted company.

Power, natural gas, phone, and most others is almost always a private company.

>>jsmith+Ia
No traditional utility company does what Google has routinely shown to do as in the original post though. There's still a bill to pay and expectations of reasonable service (I assume if I just left my tap on and drew as just electricity as I could I'd eventually get some phone calls and massive bills) that allows these companies to be profitable.

Google isn't at the point it needs to be nationalized, but something needs to be done to limit the fallout that occurs when users are kicked off essential services with no recourse.