
The Internet Is Broken, We Need a New One - kayza
https://www.zeit.de/kultur/2020-07/desinformation-peter-pomerantsev-social-media-regulation-democracy
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save_ferris
> We need a radically more transparent internet. We need to have the right to
> know whether an online account is a bot or a genuine person, whether content
> is organic or amplified by trolls. We need to know who is behind a "news"
> site.

I agree with this, but I also can't help but think policies like this would
result in much smaller and less commercially-driven internet. That's not
necessarily a bad thing, but it wouldn't result in the type of economic growth
that high-tech countries are relying upon now, which is ultimately why I don't
think we'll ever see something like this happening.

There's just too much money being made by not disclosing human vs bot users to
make these kinds of proposals a reality. The internet really is a commercial
tool first and foremost, and there's way too much vested interest in
jeopardizing that.

~~~
slipheen
I think part of where we went wrong was allowing commercial activity on the
Internet in the first place.

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sharpdot
It’s not broken. We nerds think it is because it’s no longer just for nerds.
It used to be a DnD party but now it’s a keg party. The problem is we didn’t
set up guidelines when we had the chance. We made agile manifestos instead.
How do we do make rules now? That’s the new tech challenge.

~~~
uniqueid
It seems to me nerds came very late indeed to the "internet is broken" party.
Most of us wanted to believe there was an "invisible hand" online, guiding the
world to reason and brotherly love.

My perception is that the inflection points at which nerds soured have been
political events: Edward Snowden, 2016 US Election, Brexit, Charlottesville,
Myanmar, and Christchurch.

I don't see the common thread of these events pointing to a clash of nerds and
jocks. It's just become an exercise in cognitive dissonance to preach
"Singularity" gospel, while the world outside looks increasingly dystopian.

~~~
sharpdot
Good point. Yeah I don't think it's a clash of nerds v jocks - more of a shift
from a small party to one where everybody and their friend shows up.

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grognak420
[https://www.elastos.org/](https://www.elastos.org/)

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LargoLasskhyfv
Eure Zeit ist abgelaufen, ein müder Haufen Mietmäuler den keiner mehr Mieten
will.

Chill!

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Chiba-City
First, eliminate advertising. Next, eliminate anonymity. Next, focus on
teaching things that can be taught. For one example, the old (pre .com)
comp.lang Usenet forums were fantastic. For another example, Consumer Reports
is a blissfully dull but useful publication. B2B commerce at least comes with
contracts and credible threats of legal retaliation. Broadcast consumer
marketing is fully toxic.

~~~
buboard
Jawohl, mein Kommandant

~~~
dang
Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to Hacker News? You've
been doing it a lot and we ban that sort of account.

~~~
buboard
a terse comment isn't necessarily unsubstantive. the obvious subtext is that
they are proposing authoritarianism

goodbye

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netsharc
Does the article talk about German news websites that insist on tracking and
ads?

Ah luckily their "paywall" still doesn't mess with private browsing.

