> They have a standing military to enforce (lawyers in the countries of presence).
In other words, they have to use the legal authority of the actual government to enforce anything because they have none of their own. This seems to me to illustrate exactly why they are not a government. Governments have their own authority to enforce rules and their own means of doing it.
They do have the legal authority of their own platform. they are the king of their area, as in divine right of kings sense.
It is indeed true they do not have the divine right over the physical area and the organizational structure physically. That's because many governments in which tech companies have presence are quite stable.
Take away that stability, and absolutely yes the companies will hire private militaries to enforce their rule.
But your argument is that companies don't have physical divine right of kings - so they aren't sovereign. But we'll just hand-wave away the fact that they indeed do retain that power over their company and all the serfs who want to use the company's infrastructure.
That's called property rights. They have the same authority over their platform and its members that I have over my house and anyone who wants to use it. Owning property does not make me or anyone else "sovereign" in any meaningful way.
> Owning property does not make me or anyone else "sovereign" in any meaningful way.
The US does. And then they delineate national ownership to people/corporations. Property taxes are the upkeep to maintain the ledger in the governmental database(s). And the Government makes laws (congress), adjudicates laws, and enforces laws.
You and I must have a very different idea of what sovereignty means in the context of governments. Owning property does not make me, Facebook, or anyone else a sovereign government.
In other words, they have to use the legal authority of the actual government to enforce anything because they have none of their own. This seems to me to illustrate exactly why they are not a government. Governments have their own authority to enforce rules and their own means of doing it.