๐CHALLENGE AND OPPORTUNITY
The internet was originally envisioned as an anti-fragile, censorship resistant, free speech network where anyone could publish anything. However, the internet wasnโt pre-designed: it evolved over a number of years as institutions and corporations came online, adding to the protocols and applications. Both open-source coders and big corporations contributed to the end result that is available today in the form of the World Wide Web. While the webโs physical infrastructure remains decentralized and resilient in the face of natural and man-made disasters, much of the actual power has been concentrated in a few hands due to the network effects that have favored large corporate interests over the interests of the masses.
The situation is so grave that even the blockchain-based protocols which were supposed to decentralize the web are in danger, because they are built on top of a centralized foundation.
As a result, on todayโs internet:
Peopleโs data is collected and used to manipulate them through search and social media.X
Internet protocols are becoming regulated and censored.
Individuals, addresses, and content can functionally be censored in a variety of ways.
Governments cooperate with large corporates (and sometimes force this cooperation) to obtain information about users and block websites, including for the purposes of restraining the population or controlling flows of resources and information.
Since the Middle Ages, higher social classes controlled the lower classesโ behavior and kept the social order by preventing them basic rights such as the right for property, contracts and occupation, the right for information, and the right of free speech: how can one improve his/her social and financial status without the ability to own property and land, to contract others and to choose his/her own vocation and field of trade? How can one know any better if he/she is deprived of education and access to knowledge? How will the public resist unfair and immoral laws if people cannot freely communicate with each other? The Middle Ages have long passed, but these techniques are still used by governments through the modern communication and trading technology, that is, through the internet.
Freedom of expression, personal privacy, freedom of information, freedom of occupation, freedom of contracts and freedom of property are fundamental rights without which humans cannot have agency to make their own decisions freely. Humans have the right to agency in their speech, actions, and decisions. They have the right to be free from repression and arbitrary confiscation of their property. For a functioning and moral society, people must have an infrastructure where their speech is not censored and their property is safeguarded.
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