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JohnBooty | on: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon
I’m generally lasseiz-faire when it comes to most drugs, although I do think some drugs like opioids are rather objectively a cancer to society and anybody in that pipeline needs to be punished.

So. Comparisons to Google, Verizon, etc?

While his actions aren’t equivalent to a “direct” old-fashioned drug dealer selling fentanyl, they’re clearly also not equivalent to providers like Google or Verizon.

They provide truly general purpose communications networks. Common carriers. That’s different from a marketplace explicitly designed to facilitate a particular thing like selling drugs.

I mean, you can upload non-porn videos to PornHub, or attempt to met platonic knitting circle buddies on there. But let’s not sit around and pretend the entire operation isn’t designed around the explicit purpose of selling porn.

xyzzy9563 | parent
It wasn’t designed for just drugs. There were many different categories.
JohnBooty | root | parent | next
There was a category for drugs. And specific subcategories for different specific kinds of drugs.

Unlike, say, the phone network or your neighborhood street corner it was pretty unambiguously designed to sell drugs (and more)

Apart from any sort of judgement we might want to make, facts are facts and Silk Road was factually designed to sell drugs.

You don't get to participate in the discussion until you acknowledge basic reality.