We’re past the point of debating whether to regulate the Internet. That ship has sailed. It’s painfully obvious that the ease with which a nation-state actor can spread propaganda necessitates some form of regulation for security purposes.
Because the Internet doesn’t belong to one nation, there are many different ideas as to what that regulation needs to look like. The biggest problem in the “everything should be free!” viewpoint is the assumption that all cultures around the world will converge on western democratic values. That‘s honestly a pretty arrogant assumption (though shared by many in the west).
There absolutely needs to be some framework — I’m just not sure the author proposes is the right one. I normally like Ben Thompson’s frameworks, but the categories he proposes are not MECE and very hand-wavy. It’s a good start to thinking about the problem, but there are a lot of business models aside from ad-supported that drive problematic behavior as well.
Whenever I'm reminded that people like you exist I remember why I'm working so hard to build technological barriers that will eliminate the damage your screwed up viewpoints will cause. You are the oppressors. Remember that.
We need regulation, but not in the authoritarian way you propose. We need to prevent any one person or organization from having too big a loudspeaker, and that means maintaining a free-expression attitude and creating regulation that ensures that no one can interfere with that. Your statement is highly ironic because all it does is hand the fucking loudspeaker to the government instead, which as you yourself said, can be any sort of government, including authoritarian ones. You haven't thought this through, and there are people who have done so for a lot longer than you have. Your arrogance in this matter will be your undoing.
This is so true. It is especially important to amplify voices that have experienced the most cultural oppression and erasure. I hope that we will be able to resurrect Neanderthals from dna and and provide them with a natural habitat where they can grow and thrive. My dream is that one day 50% of all tech workers will be Neanderthals and they will make the same wages as Homo sapiens, or more.
Because the Internet doesn’t belong to one nation, there are many different ideas as to what that regulation needs to look like. The biggest problem in the “everything should be free!” viewpoint is the assumption that all cultures around the world will converge on western democratic values. That‘s honestly a pretty arrogant assumption (though shared by many in the west).
There absolutely needs to be some framework — I’m just not sure the author proposes is the right one. I normally like Ben Thompson’s frameworks, but the categories he proposes are not MECE and very hand-wavy. It’s a good start to thinking about the problem, but there are a lot of business models aside from ad-supported that drive problematic behavior as well.