Ro Khanna makes the case for digital public space

we underappreciated people’s attachment to place. We underappreciated the necessity of community. I think now we’re suffering the consequence of that with a lot of communities destroyed—many of them now feeling they don’t have a place in a modern economy, and don’t have a sense of identity.

So what we have to do, in my view, is to make the participation of the digital sphere more active, more empowering. There are many ways you could do that, but I’m thinking of a site that’s a bit more formal and inclusive of everyone, discussing issues affecting the community.

what we need to do is rethink this sense of unfettered capitalism in an age of globalization and say, no, we still have to value community, we still have to value place, and we need to have a capitalist system that allows for enough state intervention, that helps places survive and thrive.

the amount of time people spend on Twitter and Facebook and like and share and comment is partly a function of not having any other way of having a voice in government, a sense of disaffection.

The fact that we’re even having to ask that question shows the problem: unlike in the newspaper business and in the broadcast business, social media has no separate sphere that’s divorced from profit maximization.

How can we make the case for publicness in a culture that’s very used to private companies?

We need to make a case where even private companies have a sphere of public obligation and public interest. Right now social media doesn’t have that, and that is a glaring weakness because it has such an effect on democracy. Beyond that, we have to call for true public forums like PBS, but I think a better case can be made for those if they’re seen... See more

I would argue that what you need is a mix of the public and the private. You need more digital public spheres—both local governments could create it; nonprofits could create it.

it’s hard for Silicon Valley platform people to remember that different places have different characters and qualities