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This here is a personal observation of how the web has devolved into a "closed net". This will range from the moral standing of the tech giants to the tribal politics we find ourselves in. The analysis will proceed as follows: moral standing, what caused this, closed net, alternative dive.
Lemme ask you this: when you saw that the death counts as a direct result of COVID-19 was not as crazy, but still bad, did you state what you found? If so, then there's a big chance that you got clocked upside the head by one of the Closed Net moguls if you said it on Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, etc. for saying what you understood best to be the truth.
It's not just you, nor is it just the understood truth about COVID-19. Anything the Moguls consider a "slip up" will land you in trouble, and it usually ranges from getting kicked out to getting absolutely hounded out by the mob. To address the elephant in the room: NO, this is not including clearly defined rules including "no racism" and "no doxxing (revealing a person's identity and home)". What is not clearly defined can be used for anything on the furthest stretch of suspension of disbelief, and people will fall for it hook line and sinker unless they know of the alternative route to get more than one perspective and are still damn conscious.
This ambiguity results in a draconian rule that leaves its users in constant FEAR over what not to say, and generates constant worry that their opinion will be frowned upon. It's Big Brother all over again! You can't even keep "private" conversations private on the Closed Net pantheon as they will collect every single word, voice recording and things you decided not to say because you typed them and backed out if they implement keyloggers.
If you must lie to thrive, then something is DEAD WRONG. You get called a tinfoil hat for attempting to expose security and privacy problems that no-one's talking about. You get called a non-believer of "science" because you understand that the direct cause COVID-19 death counts are smaller, but still bad. If you believe that gun control is bullcrap, then you get called a terrorist.
At the decline of the World Wide Web era, the 1990s, the Internet was being gripped harder and harder by corporations that wanted to control the Internet for themselves. They opted for sleeker services that worked out of the box, something that the people wanted more than the Wild West that held the freedom the users deserve. Bringing "order" was a business model.
You would check your Twitter and/or Facebook every hour (if not every minute of the day), anticipating someone to interact with, something to join, etc. Gaming uses the Internet as well. Almost everything uses the internet to provide one service or another. It is all about using a service or getting something.
While the Wild West known as the World Wide Web still exists, it is being phased out, as well as HTML. Why? It's because the software mogul knows that online consumerism relies on efficient, perfectly working webapps (and straight up apps) that will hook people on the premise of the app and keep them on there. Take Facebook for example: you become hooked on interacting with people on the go without having to do anything but sign up, and it becomes a serious drug-like addiction, with varying consequences if you try to stop, much like drug withdrawal.
Do you want to know WHY this is the case? Dopamine. Dopamine is the substance that gives our brains a happy reaction. The Facebook user's brain is now conditioned to rely on Facebook for dopamine boosts which results in other, more natural sources of dopamine release (such as doing 50 push-ups for 10 reps) to become completely abandoned. If you try to get away from Facebook, you become distressed and depressed as you suddenly don't have your only (if one of the remaining) sources of dopamine release. You want to stay on, even if it means restricting your vocabulary, probably to the point of caveman-like speech, or if we're following 1984, newspeak.
Do you see the pattern? If not, I will tell you: Ease of access and human mental degredation. They want you to become SO HOPELESSLY DEPENDENT on their tools of the trade that you will know no alternative, nor want any alternative. THIS is why the World Wide Web era has ended. THIS is the result of an invasive acidic way to take advantage of consumerism.
In my true to heart, honest opinion, the Internet can no longer be called as such. It is the Closed Net, a real life parallel to Night City's Internet, which is shut out from the rest of the world. Connective solutions like Gemini, the WWW, TOR and others are the real-life equivalent of what lay beyond the Blackwall, which is basically the rest of the connected world in the Cyberpunk 2020/2077 universe.
If you ever watched One Piece, you know about Dressrosa's Birdcage, which seals the nation away from the rest of the world. Take that concept, and translate it to the Internet. Yep, this is what we're seeing.
As an advocate of the freedom that Gemini, the WWW and etc provide, I want to talk about how you can GTFO of these echo chambers. I'll talk about the places I've experienced, as well as other places I've read up on. You ready? Let's go. I'll start with video distribution.
Odysee: this platform focses on video and audio sharing and is touted as a freedom alternative to Youtube. It's being targeted right now due to a cryptocurrency you can earn and spend called LBC, in a bid to have it called a security, not a currency. The site is a harsh advocate for free speech, but its rules are only "don't break the law", which includes NSFW and copyright-infringing content. However, the primary concern is the restriction of flaming (or "hate speech") and bullying. SO far, they haven't stretched beyond absolutely necessary bans and restrictions, but KNOW THIS: this is but a CLIENT for the LBRY system, so if they decide to actively censor, you can EASILY find another client (thanks to its open source nature) that does NOT censor.
Bitchute: this platform is a video only platform that challenges Youtube with a blockchain-based video distribution service. While this site is less freewheeling than Odysee, its rules are STRICTLY defined to a repaired fault. They have clear definitions for unconsented violence, animal cruelty, child abuse, harassment, overall harmful activities (dangerous drugs for example), causing hatred (UK Audio-visual Media Services Regulations 2020/Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union), explicit adultery, actual terrorism and threats/inciting violence.
Furthermore, they have clear definitions of misuse. Brigading, AKA coordinated attacks on a user, Metric manipulation (making yourself look more popular than you are), misleading metadata (clickbait), name squatting (tricking users with a similar username), scamming and spamming. This strict establishment of the rules makes for a society that does not fear over what not to say, as it is already defined.
Matrix: this is where we move away from video distribution to chatting software. Matrix is a decentralized federated encrypted chat system that unfortunately caught the attention of Element, a company's client that has attracted a lot of users, making it more centralized in the process. As long as you stay TF away from the big servers like Element's (as well as Element or other company-made clients), you should be good with this system if you are into staying private. However, if you're there for the freedom of speech aspect of it, then the Matrix server is a must if you don't want to be censored.
IRC: old but gold, this completely free communications system enjoys the refusal to be controlled by any company whatsoever. The only rules that are established vary from network to network, and it's very easy to find very lax rules servers that don't have cloaked moderation. In fact, there are many free speech advocates that host their own networks. HOWEVER, avoid clients like XChat, for they are commercial, and thus are a serious risk to getting ratted out for free speech.
Tox: Tox is a direct peer to peer messaging program that can help if you want to talk with people you don't know. The measures in place to make sure your identity don't come out are impressive.
brax.me: brax.me is a public community chat that does moderation on a tight set of rules like Bitchute does. These are the rules they have in play: no harrassment and defamatory attacks, no spam, no collecting information unless expressly approved, no bots, no multi-level marketing (a la pyramid schemes), no viruses or otherwise malicious code, no unlawful stuff, do not impair the function of brax.me and no facilitating or encouraging violation of any statement or policy. Furthermore, inappropriate stuff (NSFW) is to be kept hidden. You're also to be 13 or higher to accept the terms or get a parent/guardian to agree.
Gemini Protocol: moving to hosting your own content online now, we have the Gemini Protocol. The Gemini Protocol is a POWERHOUSE of an ANSWER to the ABSOLUTE UNIT of BLOAT the Closed Net is. While it is much newer than its counterpart, Gopher, the simplicity and ease of deployment of your capsule (website equivalent) (and subsequent edits) is POWERFUL. No need to learn one or more beefy coding languages (including CSS), no need to stress (maybe except about typos and other mistypes, which is still pretty minimal on the stress.) Things you can do include hosting other people's capsules (which the *Tilde communities do [*corrected myself]), writing blogs, making simple games (Door style), and even host your own files.
Gopher: Gopher is an old school answer to the stress inducing FTP protocol, which still thrives today as a lightweight alternative to hosting your own website. Having been made by a team of programmers at the University of Minnesota, it was since released for free on FTP sites after it was rejected by the board. Having been the first ever viral piece of software, it still holds a following to this day, and you can easily establish your Gopher hole as an alternative to hassling with WAMP or something to that effect. If you want to do media related stuff, my understanding is that many (if not all) modern clients can support such things.