Reviving the Internet: From the 'Enshitternet' to a Better Digital Future

May 6th, 2024 Written by: Rebecca Beardslee, Edited by: ChatGPT & Humanise

Image by Public domain

The internet was better before it morphed into “five massive websites, each overflowing with screenshots from the others.”

The decline of the internet isn’t about the technology itself; it is about who benefits from it and who suffers because of it.

The internet didn’t go downhill because the virtuous early internet pioneers were replaced by greedy tech entrepreneurs. In fact, those profit-driven individuals were always there, just as the altruistic guardians were.

The real reason for the internet’s decline is that we dismantled the systems that once kept it in check. We allowed the erosion of antitrust laws that previously ensured large, stagnant companies couldn’t simply buy their way to dominance.

This led to the end of a cycle of renewal. In the past, companies that grew too large would eventually collapse under their own weight. Back then, skilled hackers used the power of interoperability—a sophisticated tool from a more honorable time—to topple the giants that dominated our digital lives. However, these hackers themselves became corrupted when they lost sight of their roots and adopted the very practices they once opposed.

We need to rethink the way we engage with digital platforms to create a more equitable and authentic online experience.

The downfall of the internet didn’t happen because we had the wrong people in charge. Even the old, good internet was populated by companies founded by individuals who were far from perfect and who would have readily crushed their competitors given the chance.

Nor did the internet’s decline occur because we chose the wrong technology. The early internet had its fair share of traps and closed ecosystems.

The internet’s downfall occurred because we established the wrong rules. We allowed companies to merge into monopolies, giving them the financial power and unified purpose to manipulate our political processes.

These companies then used their influence to secure policies that stifled innovation, ensuring that no one could improve upon their products and services, thereby entrenching their dominance.

They created a system where it became illegal to challenge their business models, leading to the internet’s decline.

I yearn for a new, better internet—one where users can’t be locked in because it’s legal to:

- Reverse-engineer products and services, so you can leave a social media platform while still maintaining connections with those you leave behind.

- Jailbreak devices to remove unwanted features like surveillance, ink-locking, or repair-blocking.

- Move your media and files out of the platforms where they originated and into any player you choose.

I envision a new, better internet where tech companies are constrained by laws that ban unfair labor practices, deceptive marketing, corporate exploitation, and other forms of rent extraction.

I want an internet where it’s illegal to impose surveillance software on employees, and where those employees have the legal right to modify or remove such software.

I dream of an internet where creative workers and their audiences can connect freely, where journalism isn’t held hostage by exploitative practices.

I imagine an internet where the digital infrastructure that underpins our romantic, personal, political, civic, economic, educational, and social lives is operated by and for the people who use it.

The decline of the internet wasn’t inevitable. It was the result of specific policy decisions—choices that encouraged the formation of monopolies, which then led to further policies granting these monopolies unchecked power to abuse us while denying us the right to fight back.

But nothing that is unsustainable can last forever. The revitalization of the internet isn’t about restoring the old, good internet—it’s about building a new, better internet and making the current state of the internet a mere transitional phase between what we had and what we deserve.

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Source(s):

• Reviving the Internet, discussed in Cory Doctorow article "Enshitternet", Aug 13, 2023