Description

Why is the internet so broken and what could ever possibly fix it

In Internet for the People leading tech writer Ben Tarnoff offers an answer The internet is broken he argues because it is owned by private firms and run for profit Google annihilates your privacy and Facebook amplifies rightwing propaganda because it is profitable to do so But the internet wasnt always like this Tarnoff tells the story of the privatization that made the modern internet and which set in motion the crises that consume it today

The solution to those crises is straightforward deprivatize the internet Deprivatization aims at creating an internet where people and not profit rule It calls for shrinking the space of the market and diminishing the power of the profit motive It calls for abolishing the walled gardens of Google Facebook and the other giants that dominate our digital lives and developing publicly and cooperatively owned alternatives that encode real democratic control To build a better internet we need to change how it is owned and organized Otherwise a small number of executives and investors will continue to make choices on everyones behalf and these choices will remain tightly bound by the demands of the market Its time to demand an internet by and for the people now