> We could even end up living in a world where a kind of “e-passport”, crypto-signed government ID is attached to your every internet connection, and tracked everywhere online. […] The rise of bots could render many online communities simply uninhabitable.
> We are moving towards a model where the internet is dominated by a few centralized content providers and their walled gardens, and generated content may unfortunately make it even harder for grassroots online communities to survive and grow.
The author makes a good and fair analysis of the situation, yet I don't see how advocating for e-IDs is going to make the Internet a better place. This is a very ‘platform-focused’ critique that assume that the Internet tends toward more centralisation, where communities are packed together in massive platforms that regulate who communicates to whom and how.
Where do we see a need to regulate ‘fake news’ and artificially generated content? Facebook Pages? Twitter? Youtube? These are all hyper-global platforms focused on content monetization. On the other hand, local Facebook groups and the feed of your friends, Github repositories, Mastodon… may not face the same future. Maybe there's a lesson to learn here?
OP here. Surprised to see an old blog post resurface like this.
Just to be clear, I am not in favor of a centralized e-ID type of system. I think that would be a very ugly world to live in. I don't think that an e-ID is a good thing. This is why I talk about a web of trust at the end of the post. We need a better solution that doesn't rely on centralized control.
> On the other hand, local Facebook groups and the feed of your friends, Github repositories, Mastodon… may not face the same future. Maybe there's a lesson to learn here?
The way I see it, right now, bots are just not capable enough and it's not cost effective enough to try to gain access to these smaller communities. Facebook is a prime target because a single account gains you access to billions of users. That makes it worthwhile to farm out account creation to actual humans.
I do think smaller and more niche platforms will probably always be less subject to influence, but, there's money and power to be gained by influencing public opinion on any platform. So it's just a matter of time. Eventually there will be bots that are smart enough to create an account on any platform without human supervision and that are much less heavy handed and obvious. These bots will be able to auto-generate profile pictures and play more of a "long game" in terms of gaining your trust.
The window if the internet is that has allowed many people, whos voice wouldn't have had any power, to find likeinded people.
Does it have it's drawbacks? Fuck yeah, look at all the damned white power/ neo Nazis!
But by having a minor voice has allowed new cultures to develop. Hell have a look at r/workreform where the smallest of the small are able to talk about their issues.... Without being fired.
Yeah bots will always be there (now), but IMHO the situation for communicating is becoming better.
It's FUD. So long as applications in any form can connect to an internet, people can route around The Internet. Gopher as an example shows that alternative protocols can be created outside the modern approach. Mesh networking as well.
> We are moving towards a model where the internet is dominated by a few centralized content providers and their walled gardens, and generated content may unfortunately make it even harder for grassroots online communities to survive and grow.
The author makes a good and fair analysis of the situation, yet I don't see how advocating for e-IDs is going to make the Internet a better place. This is a very ‘platform-focused’ critique that assume that the Internet tends toward more centralisation, where communities are packed together in massive platforms that regulate who communicates to whom and how.
Where do we see a need to regulate ‘fake news’ and artificially generated content? Facebook Pages? Twitter? Youtube? These are all hyper-global platforms focused on content monetization. On the other hand, local Facebook groups and the feed of your friends, Github repositories, Mastodon… may not face the same future. Maybe there's a lesson to learn here?