An era of the internet is ending, and we’re watching it happen practically in real time. Twitter has been on a steep and seemingly inexorable decline for, well, years, but especially since Elon Musk bought the company last fall and made a mess of the place. Reddit has spent the last couple of months self-immolating in similar ways, alienating its developers and users and hoping it can survive by sticking its head in the sand until the battle’s over. (I thought for a while that Reddit would eventually be the last good place left, but… nope.) TikTok remains ascendent — and looks ever more likely to be banned in some meaningful way. Instagram has turned into an entertainment platform; nobody’s on Facebook anymore…
There’s an opportunity in this mess to re imagine the digital commons for the better. What does an online social space look like when it privileges the needs of the community over the needs of capital?
I’ve been wondering the same thing and I’m looking forward to having my questions answered.
Corporations shouldn’t get sole control of the benefits of the records of public discourse, those should be freely available to everyone.