
Cory Doctorow on the fight for a configurable and free internet - ohjeez
https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/cory-doctorow-on-the-fight-for-a-configurable-and-free-internet
======
ppeetteerr
The internet is already free and configurable. It takes some technical
knowledge to create a website just like anything in life, but that barrier is
rather small. What is happening is that to get free content, you have to give
something back. That is data, attention or money.

Don't want to live with the dominance of a DNS? You don't have to. Just share
your website's IP address. Do you want to have looser rules around your
content? Rent a server in a more liberal country.

The reality that most technologist ignore is that people want the ease of
Google or the reach of Facebook. They want cheap Android devices run by an ad
company, or free phone and video calls run by another ad company. Perhaps they
don't want the consequences of free stuff, but they are not willing to pay for
it, either.

The internet is exactly what people want from it: access to free information
and connection to anyone on the planet. It has done exactly what it was
suppose to. Let's not pretend that the internet is somehow broken
(conceptually, obv. Technically, it could be better ;) )

------
RcouF1uZ4gsC
I am afraid that fight is already lost.

If you want a website, you need to register with a DNS provider.

If you want to get word out about your website, you need twitter and facebook.

If you want people to find your website, you need google.

If you want to make a video that people will find, you need youtube.

If you say something controversial and want to keep from DDOS'd, you need
cloudflare.

Every one of those entities is a commercial entity that has the right and the
ability to remove you from their service if they don't like anything about you
or what you say.

~~~
blacksmith_tb
To a certain degree - though practically the bar to entry is very low to get
your ideas onto the 'net. You do need access to a networked computer, but
beyond that... While it's true as you say that Medium / Github / Youtube etc.
can take what you post down, they do so with some risk that there will be
public outcry. That doesn't prevent them from handwaving that away with
reference to laws requiring them to shut you up, but at least it makes it
harder.

~~~
quadrangle
If Facebook's algorithm buries you, you might never develop an audience in the
first place who would cry about things… Smart censors pick their battles. The
only way to avoid censorship is to build systems that aren't able to be
censored.

Note that
[https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2017/08/25/546127444/epis...](https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2017/08/25/546127444/episode-790-rough-
translations-in-ukraine) convinced me that maybe we actually NEED censorship
though… so no easy answers.

------
awat
The trick here seems to be boiling these messages down to a digestable bit for
non-tehnical audiences without oversimplying. In my experience very few people
want to hear my thoughts on last mile infrastructure in the US but do care
when they find out thier location is being sold.

