Facebook and Twitter as public service networks (it’s not just about the algorithm)
1) It doesn’t have to be operated by a government, it could be a new institution setup by the industry, but government seems most likely.
2) I had an unsuccessful attempt at this with [Streetwire]([web.archive.org/web/20081...](http://web.archive.org/web/20081219040000/http://www.streetwire.org/)
) back in 2009 (but then it didn’t have a global audience of billions!). I am currently working on a platform to try and at least collect information like this in a structured way so that other services could use it.
Originally published on blog.memespring.co.uk