Technology & Internet

Why I Think the Internet is Slowly Becoming Censored

surferfelix

I wanted to post this MyTake to share my thoughts on what I think about the direction the internet is heading. Let me start by presenting you with a timeline of the World Wide Web. In 1989 Tim Berners Lee "invented" the 'web' though I don't want to solely accredit him, since it was a collaborative effort that many countries took part in.

The platform took some time to arise. The front-end consisted of HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), which wasn't much more than plain text. As people gradually saw the potential of the web, new languages were written to make the internet more user friendly. Websites started to implement CSS, so that websites weren't just boring text anymore. The internet finally started to become a platform people wanted to use. It didn't look quite entertaining at first, but people didn't know any better. This image for example was what google looked like after it was renamed from "Backrub" in 1997.

Why I Think the Internet is Slowly Becoming Censored


When people started to use the web, there weren't any rules. Nobody "owned" the internet, or monitored what kind of information it would be used for. It was an anarchist platform that dictated free speech, and meant the rapid spread of information, ultimately allowing our civilisation to progress more quickly.

Here is where the problems start though. Anarchism meant that people could say "whatever they wanted" and governments didn't really like that. This meant that terrorists, organised crime, and scammers would all use this platform to their advantage, and people had to look out for this when browsing the web. It wasn't the safe, innocent platform some people brought it out to be.

This meant that someone would need to take control, but who? How do we determine who gets control. If I were to look at the internet today, and ask myself "is this the anarchist platform we once knew the internet to be", I would say that it isn't.

Wherever people go, there are companies that want to sell you stuff. If people visit a website, advertisers want to be a part of it. These advertisers started to pay money to get their ads on websites, because they knew how valuable it was. I think advertising is best done with basic repetitious conditioning via brand association. Ie, associate hunger and happiness, with the M logo, so when people are hungry, they will remind themselves that eating McDonald will make them happy.

Advertisers certainly don't want to associate their brands with communities of "terrorism" for example, and therefore they have slowly become very picky when it comes to what websites to support.

Why I Think the Internet is Slowly Becoming Censored

The largest internet tycoons advertise now (I applaud Wikipedia for not doing this, and if you feel the same, I recommend giving them a small donation since that is what keeps them alive). What you see now, is that websites like Google, Youtube, Facebook (or anything with ads really) are promoting things that favour the advertiser. We get to see less and less controversy because most of the time it isn't in the advertisers best interest to support websites that associate or have communities that associate with something 'risky and controversial'.

Websites take action by simply not showing controversial content anymore. The most recent loud example being the "Youtube" situation, where youtubers just don't get paid anymore for their videos because advertisers don't want to associate with them.

Advertisers certainly don't have all say though. To maintain their self-righteousness, websites are collecting data at every turn, putting that into an algorithm, to predict user action. Large websites that are very accurate in predicting "which" person will click on an "advertisement" seen "when" and "where", also have a big say in determining what content we get to see. I think Google and Facebook are great examples of this. They can use the value of their platform as leverage when it comes to convincing advertisers that Google is the best way to go, and they're right. If you have a website and you pay Google to get it out there, people are going to see it. If you don't support Google's decisions, and don't pay them for "AdSense" then your website is going to be at a disadvantage as opposed to those that do.


When it comes to real world crime with internet presence, it concerns the governments that this crime takes place in. Many governments believe it to be in their best interest to take "real world action" after monitoring internet speech. Several weeks ago, the Netherlands was in debate over a petition in regards to allowing governments to monitor their peoples individual online presence. They posed this as a solution when it comes to detecting "terroristic threat" on time. There were many people who agreed, posing questions like "Why should we differentiate between the real-world, and our online-world?". They are fair points, and I don't think anyone can accurately predict where this will take us.

Why I Think the Internet is Slowly Becoming Censored
I happened to revisit that thought several times, and I decided to think about "if" I was going to be monitored, "if" it would be a good strategy, and "why". I decided to search through my own internet activity looking for words that governments might try to look for when determining who is "a threat". I frequently saw myself making jokes about touchy topics, perhaps talking about the issues themselves, or acknowledging that they were happening in the first place. But "why should I care about governments reading through my stuff, so that they can catch a rapist?"

This is a fair point, and take my perspective with a grain of salt because there are some conjectures here. Its a debate of whether you trust your government or not. The issue I see though, lies in the future of data management. We are soon going to live in a world where every product in your home is connected to the internet. This means that governments can monitor the amount of times you go to the bathroom, if they can convince the system that its worth investigating.

Also think about how much effort and money it must take to fund someone trying to sort out if someone is just making "rape jokes" or is genuinely serious about his/her intentions. Several countries have been running this experiment for a while, it certainly hasn't helped at all when it comes to reducing "gun-violence" or "terrorism". This graph shows the US and EU deaths by terrorism over the last decade. In the US, the NSA started observing people since 2007. Look at how there is almost no correlation when it comes to online surveillance, and decline in gun or terroristic violence.

Why I Think the Internet is Slowly Becoming Censored

That was just my personal political opinion on the matter. The issue i'm addressing in this MyTake however, is different.

With this information, there are a few points I wanted to make.
-The internet is becoming more serious, if you make terroristic jokes online there may now very well be "real-world" consequences. (also, no more illegal torrents)
-With devices everywhere and the development of "smart cities". Governments might spend money to determine if you are "threatening," just because you said something that can statistically make it more likely for you to be a terrorist.

-The advertisement industry and data-collection companies determine what information you get to see. Perhaps influencing your decision-making and ignoring the voices that speak on behalf of controversial issues.

Let me know what you thought about this MyTake :D

Why I Think the Internet is Slowly Becoming Censored
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