Then there’s this fearful nonsense:
[Tim Berners-Lee’s successor at CERN] Francois Fluckiger says privacy threats, fake news and online bullying threaten to turn the web into an uncontrollable force.
…and in other news, the descendants of Gutenberg’s printing press no longer print just Bibles.
The fact that some asshole even talks about “controlling” the web just makes me want to make this blog even more objectionable than it is. But I won’t, because I have standards. So here’s a simple and tasteful nature pic, instead.
Banyan is riding the pony!
The web does have serious problems most of which have been caused by the leftist tech oligarchs who dominate large portions of it and by corporations and governments who put vast amounts of sensitive information out there while paying zero attention to security.
Blogs like this have greatly declined in numbers while oligarch platforms have spread. It was a bad trade. The only way it can be fixed at this point is to destroy the business model of the oligarchs by requiring a payment each time user information is sold or leased or otherwise transmitted for revenue.
Worry about the internet becoming an uncontrollable force is predicated on the idea that the internet can ever be controlled. The internet has always viewed attempts at control (e.g. censorship) as damage and routes around it. Elected officials and other nanny state supporters often times forget this and thus reveal they don’t really understand how the internet works (and yes, I understand who I am leveling that accusation against).
Consider the dark web. A large amount of the content on the dark web is as vile, reprehensible, and just plain evil as digital content can be. The rest violates a plethora of other laws. The dark web is a home to criminals of pretty much every stripe. Yet, the content exists there nonetheless despite multiple laws, law enforcement efforts, and all sorts of advocacy against it. Is it more difficult to find than our most esteemed host’s blog? Yes, it is and thankfully so. However, it is out there nonetheless despite the worries (however legitimate) that such content engenders.
Kim, when did you ever get standards?
Florida Man is just off camera to the right, isn’t he?