Wednesday 5 June 2019

The false freedom and nature of online censorship

The internet itself is the true social egalitarian aspect we look for, based on the freedom that we seek as posters and searchers on the web.

The problem with that is that each website and app on our phones belong to private people as intellectual property on physical servers.

There is no free place on the web like the freedom we have in our lives like there is public land or public property. The right to speak in these places concurrently must be fitted to a website owner's preferences in their own speech. In the same way, they can not tell you what to type on your keyboard, you can not tell them what the terms and conditions of their website's use are.

Unless the internet becomes an unowned place or an all owned place. One that can be contributed to like society but not possessed like private property. The internet will always be a false freedom.

That is the nature of the internet as it now hints at this possibility of freedom while being nested in the possession of billion-dollar companies.

Each one wanting the allure of freedom of use to attract users. Each one needing the benefits of private ownership when their personal or corporate preferences are challenged or opposed.

This is why and how anything is censored on the internet. Not because its a violation of free speech or expression. But because a website hosted by an individual crashes when it becomes too popular so the websites with more resources to host more visitors foster the communities we want to join and be with. These large infrastructures of storage and servers come with a price tag, that price tag gets paid by people with ideologies. These ideologies need to be placated to or the money disappears and with it so does the ability to have a popular site. The reality of the internet is that while connection is available through your personal phone. It's all stored and server via massive infrastructure in Silicon Valley and other info centers around the world.

These are not as free as the sign up's you fill out to tweet and snap.

This is power plain and simple. Power over another smaller service, your own computer hosting your own website to be exact. It is not evil in itself but it's present nonetheless.

If power corrupts at all. Then the size of your websites hosting ability is proportionate to your potential of tyranny in tandem. If you own a web domain or app or social media platform, it is only a matter of time before your freedoms are challenged or opposed by the users, or you oppose the user's freedoms

The tech that the internet is made of. The servers and data centers and electronic storage that hold every tweet, Instagram story, blog post, and video is fundamentally opposed to freedoms, as owned things cannot be free.

No matter how they are marketed as such.