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posted by janrinok on Friday August 30 2019, @12:08PM   Printer-friendly

Mike Masnick, usually editor for Techdirt, has written an essay on a technological approach to preserving free speech online in spite of the direction things have been heading in regards to locked-in platforms. He proposes moving back to an Internet where protocols dominate.

This article proposes an entirely different approach—one that might seem counterintuitive but might actually provide for a workable plan that enables more free speech, while minimizing the impact of trolling, hateful speech, and large-scale disinformation efforts. As a bonus, it also might help the users of these platforms regain control of their privacy. And to top it all off, it could even provide an entirely new revenue stream for these platforms.

That approach: build protocols, not platforms.

To be clear, this is an approach that would bring us back to the way the internet used to be. The early internet involved many different protocols—instructions and standards that anyone could then use to build a compatible interface. Email used SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol). Chat was done over IRC (Internet Relay Chat). Usenet served as a distributed discussion system using NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol). The World Wide Web itself was its own protocol: HyperText Transfer Protocol, or HTTP.

In the past few decades, however, rather than building new protocols, the internet has grown up around controlled platforms that are privately owned. These can function in ways that appear similar to the earlier protocols, but they are controlled by a single entity. This has happened for a variety of reasons. Obviously, a single entity controlling a platform can then profit off of it. In addition, having a single entity can often mean that new features, upgrades, bug fixes, and the like can be rolled out much more quickly, in ways that would increase the user base.

Earlier on SN:
Re-decentralizing the World-Wide Web (2019)
Decentralized Sharing (2014)


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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Arik on Friday August 30 2019, @01:54PM (3 children)

    by Arik (4543) on Friday August 30 2019, @01:54PM (#887744) Journal
    You don't.

    You either need to be fully staffed by users, or you need to be user supported.

    Advertising is the insidious force driving these 'platforms.' Advertising offers money up front - pay for it with your integrity later. With the money up front, you build and promote, you buy goodwill - and then you spend it.

    It's very hard to compete with in the short term, but in the long run surely no one wants to live in the world that creates.
    --
    If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
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  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday August 31 2019, @04:58AM (2 children)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Saturday August 31 2019, @04:58AM (#888104) Homepage Journal

    You either need to be fully staffed by users, or you need to be user supported.

    Sure, let's make everything user-supported FOSS. I was getting tired of getting paid to be in the air conditioning anyway.

    Man, y'all pony up every time the bills are due around here but given that five years later we still haven't managed to refill NCommander and matt_'s wallets, I'm going to have to say this just ain't a viable model for anything with significant growth pressure.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    • (Score: 2) by Arik on Saturday August 31 2019, @05:19AM (1 child)

      by Arik (4543) on Saturday August 31 2019, @05:19AM (#888107) Journal
      It's a conundrum, I wish I had a better answer.

      --
      If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
      • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday August 31 2019, @01:15PM

        by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Saturday August 31 2019, @01:15PM (#888207) Homepage Journal

        The answer is publicize hobby things, small/simple but useful things, and things whose lockdown would be a net loss for itself and for whoever is going to hold equity (sweat or fiscal) in it. And to not publicize away your rent money or your employees' jobs.

        It's only actually a hard call if you're placing ideals over people.

        --
        My rights don't end where your fear begins.