The concept of social networks, broadly speaking, as amplifiers for idiots and crazy people is not what we intended - Eric Schmidt

Of course social networks amplify idiots and crazy people. The implication of the quote is that Schmidt and co had benevolent intentions. I'm not so sure about that. https://wikileaks.org/google-is-not-what-it-seems/ What did he intend, then? Well, my best guess is exactly what we got with Google and Facebook: a megacorp in bed with the state as a surveillance panopticon that is also useful propaganda platform to have as a state weapon in the information age. Schmidt's objection to social networks is that they turned out too difficult to control because of problematic idiots, but that doesn't mean they intended to build a system to encourage humanity, freedom of expression, and the free-flow of information. They imagined social networks would simply develop into version 2.0 of the traditional newspapers and press that could be centralized and easily controlled without the neuroticism that we see from Flat Earthers. It's really interested to see both the left and right fight over the ills of social media; one side complains about the crazy conspiracy theories, and the other complains about the censorship. They're both right, and yet somehow there isn't the political will to fix any of it. hmm, I wonder why...