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From: Techdirt
Content moderation is a can of worms. For Internet infrastructure intermediaries, it’s a can of worms that they are particularly poorly positioned to tackle. And yet Internet infrastructure elements are increasingly being called on to moderate content—content they may have very little insight into as it passes through their systems.
The vast majority of all content moderation happens on the “top” layer of the internet—such as social media and websites, places online that are the most visible to an average user. If a post violates a platform’s terms of service, the post is usually blocked or taken down. If a user continues to post content that violates a platform’s terms, then the user’s account is often suspended. These types of content moderation practices are increasingly understood by average Internet users.
Less often discussed or understood are the types of services facilitated via actors in the Internet ecosystem that both support and exist under the upper content layers of the Internet.
Many of these companies host content, supply cloud services, register domain names, provide web security, and many more features of what could be described as the plumbing services of the Internet. But instead of water and sewage, the Internet deals in digital information. In theory, these “infrastructure intermediaries” could moderate content, but for reasons of convention, legitimacy, and practicality they don’t usually do it on purpose.
However, some notable recent exemptions may be setting precedent.
Amazon Web Services removed Wikileaks from their system in 2010. Cloudflare kicked off the Daily Stormer. An Italian court ordered Cloudflare to remove a copyright infringing site. Amazon suspended hosting for Parler.
What does all this mean? Infrastructure may have the means to perform “content moderation,” but it is critical to consider the effects of this trend to prevent harming the Internet’s underlying architecture. In principle, Internet service providers, registries, cloud providers and other infrastructure intermediaries should be agnostic to the content which passes over their systems.
[...] Policymakers must consider the unintended impacts of content moderation proposals on infrastructure intermediaries. Legislating without due diligence to understand the impact on the unique role of these intermediaries could be detrimental to the success of the Internet, and an increasing portion of the global economy that relies on Internet infrastructure for daily life and work.
[...] Conducting impact assessments prior to regulation is one way to mitigate the risks. The Internet Society created the Internet Impact Assessment Toolkit to help policymakers and communities assess the implications of change—whether those are policy interventions or new technologies.
Policy changes that impact the different layers of the Internet are inevitable. But we must all ensure that these policies are well crafted and properly scoped to keep the Internet working and successful for everyone.
Austin Ruckstuhl is a Project & Policy Advisor at the Internet Society where he works on Internet impact assessments, defending encryption and supporting Community Networks as access solutions.
Should online content be controlled ? If yes, Is there a better way to censor online content and who should have the authority to do so ??
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @02:42PM (12 children)
The phone company provided infrastructure for communication. It was illegal for the phone company to control your speech on the phone.
(Score: 3, Disagree) by DannyB on Wednesday September 29 2021, @03:14PM (11 children)
There are important differences. A phone call is private. Generally between exactly two parties. Certainly back in the day of land lines and rotary dial.
At the other extreme, Facebook and Twitter are public broadcast platforms. And they are private property, or are publicly traded and therefore act in accordance with the interests of the investors who own the platform, as determined by executives, board of directors and others chosen by the investors. Platforms have a strong interest in policing their platforms. Anyone can build their own platform. And they have done so.
Is Facebook "infrastructure" like the phone company? Or like ISPs or internet backbones? Or cloud hosting services?
Where exactly is the line between infrastructure and platforms?
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 4, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday September 29 2021, @03:25PM (10 children)
ISP | Website
There ya go, I showed you where the line is!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Wednesday September 29 2021, @03:37PM (5 children)
Cloud hosting providers are more fuzzy. (or rather "cloudy")
Opinion, but please feel free to make counter argument:
* Provider of bare virtual machines are more on the infrastructure side of the line
* Provider of services such as web server, database services, 'docker' container hosting, lambda function micro services, etc are more on the platform side of the line
Other opinions? Where to draw the line in the cloud seems a bit cloudy.
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday September 29 2021, @03:49PM (4 children)
"The cloud" is just someone else's server.
So it's like renting a house. The renter get's to decide certain things but they do also need to follow the landlord's rules.
So it lands on the right side of the line above.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday September 29 2021, @05:14PM (3 children)
I don't have a problem with that.
What it definitely means is that even providers of simple virtual machine hosting can control who they decide to rent to.
OMG! It means that they could
sensorcensercensor providers of dangerous misinformation and outright lies about ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, and bleach.There is undoubtedly a market for hosting dangerous misinformation and outright lies. After all, just see the viewership of Fox News.
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday September 29 2021, @06:19PM (1 child)
A major far-right platform got hit by a data breach, revealing the names and addresses of Proud Boys, QAnon, and Texas Right to Life backers [businessinsider.com]
Well the market it there.
But unfortunately for them they decided to "do their own research" about computer security!
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday September 29 2021, @07:01PM
I've heard about that breach.
I love it how they always "do their own research" yet know nothing about the actual subject.
They "do their own research" on the law, yet don't know the law. Or the constitution. Or how contagious diseases work.
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday September 30 2021, @05:49AM
Yep, perfectly ok, but the pipe to that virtual machine's perimeter shall not be infringed, it must be as dumb as the dirt it is buried in.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday September 29 2021, @06:09PM (2 children)
Websites are that newfangled http protocol stuff. There's lots of techniques between web sites and ISPs. (Whether they're "below" or "along side of" depends on how you model things.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday September 30 2021, @04:02AM (1 child)
If you were looking to define it more precisely, the infrastructure consists of everything necessary to run DNS, BGP, basic packet routing, and transport-layer protocols like TCP and UDP. Everything else making use of that is part of a platform of some kind, albeit potentially a very niche platform with a very small user base, no matter what kind of server or protocol you're talking about. Running an FTP server? That's a platform. Running a personal git repo over ssh? That's a platform. Running a large social media system over IRC? That's a platform.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday September 30 2021, @01:32PM
That's certainly a legitimate model, and very useful in a large number of contexts.
But an ftp server is a lot simpler than a web page with embedded javascript, and complexity is also a legitimate model to rank things by.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 30 2021, @10:09AM
Back in 1997. Now it goes like this (Every link in the chain is a private company completely at liberty to cut off your packets when the government asks)
Router-Company | ISP | Datacentre | Caching Serivces | Peer routing | Datacentre | DDOS Provision | VPS provider | Social Media Service | Website/Blog/Tweet-feed/etc
This is just for one GET request. Don't even get started on the software/database/support services dependency stack.
(Score: 3, Disagree) by ealbers on Wednesday September 29 2021, @02:47PM (25 children)
There should be no way for anyone to post anything anonymously, period.
Just as in real life, you can protest, scream and yell, say horrible things, and everyone knows WHO is saying those things.
Give a IPV6 address to everyone wishing internet access, force a paper trail and a payment trail to every internet user.
No privacy on the internet, you say something you can be held for libel, or charged if its equivalent to yelling 'fire' in a theatre.
This will, pretty quickly, calm down the crazies.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @03:04PM
Hypothetically, let's say that this were enacted.
Then, someone in some terribly backwards country, let's call it MAGAstan, decides that providing for anonymous speech is an important part of freedom of speech (not that anybody else cares about that) and that therefore it must be possible.
Now what? Cut off MAGAstan?
Or, to take another hypothetical, some backwards hillbilly in MAGAstan creates a not-the-internet based on ... oh, let's call it carrier pigeons and heliograph. And then they have anonymous speech on there. Now what about your regulations?
What about reporting of third party speech, do we have to require auditable reference trails for quotes?
So many questions.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by janrinok on Wednesday September 29 2021, @03:07PM
Under whose laws? The internet isn't a US asset - the whole world has invested in it. If the US had paid for all of the infrastructure worldwide then maybe you would have a case. Do you want the rules to be those decided by Saudi Arabia (perhaps no women should be allowed to post?), or maybe China (don't mention Tiananmen Square?), or perhaps you lean towards Russia (Putin should be the leader of the whole world)?
There are even significant differences between libel law in the USA and Europe.
...and who decides who the crazies are?
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @03:07PM
I strongly agree that nobody should be allowed to post anonymously. Period.
Anonymously posted content should be allowed to be censored because anonymous speakers are less entitled to freedom of expression, just as it should be.
IPV6 addresses should be implanted shortly after birth.
Crazy people should not be allowed to speak. Or have guns.
It is a simple solution to implement.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @03:09PM (5 children)
If you feel that way, why are you here?
This site, and the segment of internet culture it comes from, has always embraced anonymous and pseudonymous posting. There's a thousand sites with registration required, and plenty with real-name policies, so why do you choose to come here with us anonymous "crazies"?
(Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday September 29 2021, @03:45PM (4 children)
"Yet you participate in society." *smug*
Teasing aside here's a mental exercise you should consider: Do you think ealbers would leave if AC posting were disabled like it were on the green site? If the answer is 'probably not' then you already have an answer to your question. It's not like anywhere on the internet is perfect.
Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @06:44PM (3 children)
Indeed, because I would need to assume an answer to my question to predict his reaction. If I suppose he's here on a mission to get anonymous posting disabled (no doubt as good cop to APK's bad cop?), then I'd suppose he would leave because his work here is done, and continue his crusade elsewhere.
Or if I suppose he's here because a circle of his friends are here, then I'd have to guess whether they would stay or leave...
And so on.
But, silly me, I thought I'd ask him why he's here, instead of making assumptions and telling him why he's here. If he does come back with an answer, that will be interesting, and if he doesn't, well that's an answer in itself.
Sure, all the other places and cultures of the net are "imperfect", yes, but surely some of them must be more palatable than here, and it's not like SN is a focused forum with expertise in some particular topic not to be found elsewhere. It's just one of many places to hang out and discuss news.
So he's identified the single problem that makes everything go sour, and yet a corner of the net committed to that very problem somehow makes his list of places to hang out because it's outweighed by what, the scintillating banter, the laser-shark wit? Watching the Zoomy-Zukes/Rubagay mud wrestling?
I'm on the pro-anonymity side, as you no doubt guessed, and I'm not all that sure why I come here. I certainly wouldn't anymore, if I decided one of this community's foundations was a fundamental problem with the internet. So while I don't really expect an answer, I am genuinely curious what the hell he sees here to make it worthwhile.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Wednesday September 29 2021, @09:14PM
I posted this on Colo's "goodbye" journal [soylentnews.org]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday September 29 2021, @10:27PM (1 child)
I apologize for being unreasonably snarky. I'm not sure if I just mixed his post up with another or if I just failed to catch how extreme his view was. Maybe a little bit of both. My bad entirely. I'm sorry, man.
Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 30 2021, @12:47AM
Apology accepted, unnecessary though it was.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @03:22PM (2 children)
Good thing you weren't around during the founding of the United States. Much of the pro-independence speech was published anonymously. In fact, the Federalist Papers (foundation of our Constitution) was published anonymously.
How long do you think you would have lasted in Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union or North Korea (just to name a few) if you criticized the government publicly?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @08:39PM (1 child)
Don't wimp out. Go there.
How long do you think a dissident posting under their own name would last in any Western country during these dark times?
That is what this is all about, f*ck Nazi Germany, it is old history; Karen (and the rage mob she summoned) is here and now and she wants to speak with your manager about what you just posted from home to a totally unrelated social media site.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 05 2021, @02:20PM
I think cancel culture is a much bigger problem. See, for instance,
The Real Story About The Latest Dog Park "Racism" Incident, with Katie Herzog | The Megyn Kelly Show
Megyn Kelly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6ktomCav4I [youtube.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by inertnet on Wednesday September 29 2021, @03:29PM (1 child)
Identity theft will become an even bigger hell for the victims.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday September 29 2021, @03:40PM
What if people could easily have their identity modules replaced as necessary?
Then it would be impossible to steal someone's identity module.
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 5, Informative) by Freeman on Wednesday September 29 2021, @03:42PM
Your no anonymity sounds like various versions of dystopian science fiction. There are good reasons not to share your name, e-mail address, mailing address, and other private information, online. Even in the age of the printing press, anonymous publications were anonymous for a reason. Now, every time you post a message on SoylentNews, Facebook, or an Amazon review, you are publishing something. With today's dangers of identity theft or other malicious behavior, you should be careful and allowed the right to privacy. Posting anonymously is part of being able to be included, without exposing yourself to unknown dangers. This used to be just basic stuff you learned. Now, it's not just that people don't care (which they don't), there are people that want to track your every move. I guarantee you, it's not for your benefit.
https://lifehacker.com/how-to-create-a-fake-identity-and-stay-anonymous-online-5854203 [lifehacker.com]
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170529-the-reasons-you-can-never-be-anonymous-again [bbc.com]
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ElizabethGreene on Wednesday September 29 2021, @05:02PM (4 children)
I assume you've never tried to organize people to protest against an oppressive government or organization that was willing to kill people to prevent those protests. There are people willing to stand in front of a tank [youtube.com] to protest their government. How do you find and organize those people if you get shot for posting criticisms of a law? [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday September 29 2021, @06:15PM
How about just willing to fire people to keep a union from being organized?
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Common Joe on Wednesday September 29 2021, @06:39PM (2 children)
I assume ealbers is a troll. He didn't post his email address. And he didn't post his full name. And if he's on this site, he should know why anonymity is so important.
Some people do use their real name or sign with their comments with their real name or publicly declare their real name in posts. I can't recall seeing his comments before, but I doubt he's done any of that. "ealbers" isn't a lot to go on.
(You, on the other hand, I think do use your name, but I don't care to put in the effort to find out for sure. I can respect your posts without knowing your actual history because I judge you on your content -- which I know tend to be high quality. I tip my hat to you. Me, on the other hand... I like to hide behind a fake name that indicates I like to blend into a crowd and disappear. Only marginally better than being an anonymous coward, I suppose.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @07:56PM (1 child)
"I assume ealbers is a troll."
It's funny how those that oppose anonymity the most often post anonymously.
If there is one thing that's difficult to do it's that you can't coherently construct an astroturfing campaign against anonymity (anonymously) because then doing so anonymously would make you look like a hypocrite if you don't positively identify yourself.
"Astroturfing is the practice of masking the sponsors of a message or organization (e.g., political, advertising, religious or public relations) to make it appear as though it originates from and is supported by grassroots participants. "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing [wikipedia.org]
You can't non-anonymously mask your identity.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 30 2021, @03:03AM
Sure you can! Masking is about applying extra layers, you don't have to remove anything.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @05:32PM (2 children)
So please identify yourself for us to all know who you are.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @06:50PM
Also everyone that upmods/upmodded ealbers's comment that doesn't identify themselves is also a hypocrite.
Those that oppose anonymity should not do so anonymously.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @07:17PM
Also, should people not be allowed to vote anonymously? When you vote you are expressing your opinion about a political candidate or an issue. If people shouldn't be allowed to give their opinions anonymously why should they be allowed to vote anonymously?
Those that oppose anonymity should not only identify themselves they should identify how they vote at each election. Or else they are hypocrites.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @05:42PM
fuck you, pig.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday September 30 2021, @04:10AM
This a very very bad and indeed dangerous idea. Particularly because there are jurisdictions where:
- You have to come up with money for your lawyer even if you successfully defend against a libel suit, so even if you win, you lose.
- The truth of what you wrote isn't always a valid defense.
- There are organizations that more-or-less freely commit murder and other violence without interference from the courts.
Consider a statement like "My employer, Acme Industries, treats me and my coworkers terribly. My boss sexually assaulted me in his office. Let's form a union to try to put a stop for this." This kind of statement can and has gotten people fired and unable to work, sued into bankruptcy, deported, and yes, murdered sometimes along with their families. Which companies who operate like that make sure their employees know full well. Is that really what you want?
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Freeman on Wednesday September 29 2021, @03:51PM (4 children)
They don't want liability for blocking things they shouldn't or not blocking things they should. They should provide to the best of their ability a clean data stream (No Great Firewall, etc.). Nothing else is required or wanted (by those of us that are sane and/or not evil). Electricity isn't turned off to the meth house down the street and neither is water. Internet access should have the same universal access. Once upon a time, internet access was a luxury, today, it is a necessity.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday September 29 2021, @04:23PM (3 children)
I typed, before I read much. The trouble is where does the infrastructure part of the water / electricity analogies end. Should it just be your Internet Service Provider or should it also include hosting platforms? What if, your ISP is also your hosting platform? Amazon ISP service and Amazon Web Services, for example. I would prefer to err on the side of letting weirdos spend $$$ every month to spout their weirdness, without interference.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday September 29 2021, @05:27PM (2 children)
Part of the trouble is that if we allow the government or private companies to start censoring the internet, then they suddenly think they have the ability to cut off other forms of infrastructure like water and power because they don't like what you say or how you think. In other words, censoring the Internet is a gateway drug to full-on totalitarianism.
We humans need to go the other way, toward decentralization. Instead of concentrating ever greater power and capabilities in fewer hands, we need to grow the pool of our own talents and capabilities such that we can materially walk away from those who try to throw their weight around.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday September 29 2021, @06:23PM
No. It's not that simple.
Things need to be in balance. This is very difficult, and any sane person would try to avoid the problem. People living in dense groups (where dense means in easy communication) can't operate under the rules that people living in sparse groups can. Part of the reason is "Dunbar's law", though the exact number isn't what's relevant. Another part of the reason has to do with noise level. And another part with "information overload". These tend to stress people an make them grab the first palatable opinion rather than try to find a good one. And this is a group effect, not an individual effect, though there are catalytic individuals. So just because advertising doesn't noticeably affect YOUR choices, that doesn't mean it's not worth spending money on, and perhaps you don't notice the effect is because it's shaped your judgements at a very low level. And this applies to politics as well as commerce.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @09:13PM
We are nearing the BUILD YOUR OWN COUNTRY stage for anything remotely controversial.
https://madattheinternet.com/2021/07/08/where-the-sidewalk-ends-the-death-of-the-internet/ [madattheinternet.com]
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Wednesday September 29 2021, @04:40PM (3 children)
It's an amazing coincidence that this "slippery slope" article hits right as YouTube kicks out a Russian propaganda outlet...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @08:44PM (2 children)
Why is RT a "Russian propaganda outlet" and the BBC isn't a "British propaganda outlet", DW a German one, NPR the US State Dept propaganda outlet, etc.? For that matter why isn't CNN considered the Democratic Party's outlet and FNC the Republican propaganda outlet in all citations?
When you answer that one you will achieve enlightenment.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @10:07PM
Because you have a narrow view of the world and what other people think.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Thursday September 30 2021, @12:25AM
I wasn't aware that the BBC is running disinformation programs in foreign languages.
(Score: 4, Informative) by AnonTechie on Wednesday September 29 2021, @04:47PM (3 children)
An article related to our topic:
Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday September 29 2021, @06:01PM (1 child)
Section 230 is Good, Actually [eff.org]
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act [eff.org]
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Wednesday September 29 2021, @09:17PM
230 us nice and all - for the US.
No such thing in Australia
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday September 29 2021, @09:12PM
Uh, I mean, some people love it, but certainly not all. I'm definitely not one of the ones that know and love Facebook or CNN for that matter. I do appreciate a nice clean website such as SoylentNews, though. Design wise anyway.
Quote / MOTD / whatever that quote thing is called at the bottom of my page:
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @04:58PM
pipe layers should not be responsible what sewer (or pristine clear water) flows thru them.
building on "no system can proof itself complete" and the arbitrary ethical motto "freedom of speech" they are except, even if they facilitate
to transmit those few lines of code that start the global nuclear war and/or give birth to skynet/legion/ev1l-AI-of-the-day, of any law suit-y kind of stuff!
however, plumbers have the right to police their pipes if they wish to do so BUT CANNOT BE FORCED TO DO SO!
anything else is ...good god .. what's the word? non-freedom? 1984-ism? "who watches the watchers" and "turtles all the way down"...
if not absolute it is just a softened version of above ... and time and goofgel will change behavior over time for complacency of loss of freedom(s).
"pipe-freedom" will be like "what's a folder" for the next gen.
but wait, hmm, maybe the title question is technical? like which thru-the-ocean pipe to route thru in the event of another taiwanese underwater earthquake or carlessly dropped anchor? then ofc the answer should be obviou***NO CARRIER*** *tut-tut-tut...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @09:26PM
Hello, there's no "left" and "right" anymore. There is only corporate interest.
These all so much environment-friendly left-side suddenly becomes capitalist when it's about buying new stuff from corporations. And these so tolerant become totalitarian when discrimination results in easier advertisements.
And these proud ultra-right start to fight against their free market when corporations are to be in control.
And they all, arm in arm, fight for interests of their sponsors. Truth is only handy when it is possible to show ads next to it. If something cannot be made this way, it is censored. And it is present since Internet became popular media outlet in early 2000s.
So the thing which will be censored will be things that work against advertisers.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @10:07PM
When all the information can be controlled then we no longer think for ourselves. Our ideas and beliefs will be shaped by those in charge. We will all turn into the AI that becomes whatever it is fed by the internet. People have already been weaponized as part of the battle for power.
Anyone with a basic understanding of history can figure out where this leads. Power corrupts and we are right now witnessing lots of power being given over to people who have already demonstrated their corruptness.
As has been mentioned, left and right don't matter now. We've moved beyond that chapter of the story to where more important issues are playing out.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 30 2021, @11:35AM
methinks lots of "crap" (ex. "flat earth") would not exist today if the clueless clubbermint hadn't subdued the hackers of the late 80s and 90s.
if they would have been left to live a normal life instead of being "mentally lobodomized", the internet today would have a healthy immune-system.
unfortunately punishing smart people who tried new " forbidden" things too much has left the internet "brain ded".
" flat earth"? believe you mean a "hacker" would troll the crap out of that and people would wish that the earth was flat so they could throw themselfs of the edge :)
alas, making free phone calls (fixed and mobile lines) and "hacking" nasa got you lobotomized and the internet now has AIDS!