Bonum Certa Men Certa

The World Wide Web (or Worldwide Empire): Optimised for Social Control Media



Summary: A shorter-than-usual video on where the Web is heading, why it's seriously deficient, and why IPFS seems like the way to go for those who value freedom of expression and/or access to information

THE general direction the Web/WWW (World Wide Web) has taken is troubling. The Web isn't so old. In relative terms it is in fact quite young. But nowadays it is bloated and user (visitor) hostile because the trajectory taken was determined by DRM pushers like Netflix and Google, or those who profit from the Web by spying on everyone and everything.



"It seems unlikely that the Web will become better and more open/free over time; we've long gone in the opposite direction (EME, AMP, SPDY etc.), so let's make room for alternatives and hope they gain sufficient traction."There's an old saying or ancient wisdom about creating alternatives rather than attempting to amend/repair/reform existing things. When it comes to the Web, the steering body (W3C) is thoroughly compromised and has been like this for at least a decade; so it seem like a wise idea to instead embrace substitutes or surrogates.

Naughty lists + World Wide Web = Worldwide EmpireIn 2020 we finally found the time and the capacity to make a simplified (text-only) version of the site and of IRC logs. The next step would be to serve these without a Web browser or webserver software, in effect making everything on the site accessible without surveillance and potential for censorship. The objective was complete last month and we now have a workflow that makes Techrights not only a Web site but a resource broadly available in a peer-to-peer fashion.

As noted today, in January we have some important leaks to publish and we are more comfortable publishing them when there's redundancy or a distributed (not centralised) framework for serving the material, deterring or preemptively thwarting any takedown attempts (either by technical means or threats/legal means).

It seems unlikely that the Web will become better and more open/free over time; we've long gone in the opposite direction (EME, AMP, SPDY etc.), so let's make room for alternatives and hope they gain sufficient traction.

Links from the video:

Recent Techrights' Posts

This is the Man Who's Attacking Linus Torvalds et al in "a Disease" (Social Control Media)
One thing that Richard M. Stallman and Torvalds can agree on is that Social Control Media should be avoided
Unlike GAFAM, Free Software Serves You, It Does Not Serve Governments and MElons (Overlapping Forces)
Tired of oligarchy controlling your life through gadgets and "apps"?
When It Comes to Social Control Media, Linus Torvalds is Channeling Techrights
GAFAM workers know exactly who to aim at
New EPO Paper: Promoting (Rewarding) People Who Grant Many Illegal European Patents to Make More Money (at Europeans' Expense) While Patent Courts in the EU Are Themselves Illegal
now the coup is sort of complete and even the "courts" are part of the corruption
Slopwatch: Carnival of LLM Slop and FUD Spewed by Bots, Pasted in by MaKenna Hensley and Day
Welcome to the Web in 2025. Articles about "Linux", "Security", and the Web (e.g. "Firefox") are fake.
Links 07/02/2025: Amazon’s Stock Collapses and US Government Being Dismantled (Still)
Links for the day
 
Links 08/02/2025: UK Back Doors and Religious Fundamentalists in Positions of Higher Power
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Today's IBM (Red Hat) Isn't the Company That Fought a Microsoft-Sponsored SCO in Court
IBM is nowadays in a state of rapid disintegration
When You Simply Rebrand Almost Everything as "Hey Hi" ("AI"), "Hey Hi Workloads", "Hey Hi Datacentres" and Whatnot
The "growth" has been a growing lie for years if not decades
Microsoft Windows Falls to 12% in Myanmar
Remember that Microsoft is virtually 0% in mobile
Gemini Links 08/02/2025: "Thought Leaders" and Returns to Gemini Protocol
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Links 08/02/2025: News Corp Admits Traffic Declines, Wildlife Trafficking Tackled
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Over at Tux Machines...
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Nothing of value would be lost if all these data-harvesting giants (profiling people) vanished overnight
Social Control Media is Narcissism
Nowadays there's a lot more literature and even press coverage explaining the harms of Social Control Media
Debian Left Twitter (MElon "X"), We Think the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Should Do the Same
What would the FSF really lose if it stopped posting there?
statCounter Sees GNU/Linux Share Doubling in China Over the Past Year
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Richard Stallman (RMS) Confirms Next Week's Talk in Europe
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Nationalism As A Service (NaaS) by Microsoft Azure, Gutting the US Government for Profit
Will Microsoft be receiving bailouts as a reward for all this?
Rumours of IBM Layoffs Apparently Confirmed Yesterday, IBM Canada Consulting Impacted (as Rumoured)
when IBM has layoffs we must also read it as Red Hat layoffs
Tons of Anti-Linux 'Articles' Published by Bots (LLMs), Maybe Microsoft's
Upon closer inspection, all this FUD turned out to be LLM garbage
Gemini Links 06/02/2025: Voicemail Sucks and Night of Lights
Links for the day
Ubuntu Desktop Director of Engineering Has Only One Blog Post. It Promotes Microsoft Windows.
Remember that even 15 years ago (more or less, maybe 16 years ago) Canonical appointed a a 'former' Microsoft manager (Spencer) to lead Ubuntu on the desktop
Links 06/02/2025: YouTube Takedowns Out of Control, 'DOGE' Breaking Laws
Links for the day
IBM Red Hat on "era of cloud computing", pushing "hey hi" (AI) hype in Microsoft Azure
LLM slop might actually be more benign than Microsoft promotion
Corruption and Rule-Breaking Prevail at the European Patent Office (EPO), Europe's Second-Largest Institution
The law does not really exist at the EPO; it can be perceived as merely a "recommendation"
statCounter: More Countries Where Windows is Around 1% "Market Share" (People Have Moved to Android/Linux)
in some nations Windows is already 1% or less
404 Media Says "Workers at NASA Told to Drop Everything to Scrub Mentions of Indigenous People, Women from Its Websites" But There's Also Accessibility in the Firing Line
In the case of abandoning accessibility, everyone stands to be hurt and proprietary software can be brought in to replace standards
When BetaNews Writes Real Articles About "Linux" They Promote Windows
The Web is in a bad state. We need to at least try to correct this.
Gemini Links 06/02/2025: Cynicism and "Real Magic on the C64"
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Links 06/02/2025: New Sanctions, Layoffs, and Executive Orders
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Distros and Desktop Environments, Devices
GNU/Linux focused
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Over at Tux Machines...
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IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, February 05, 2025
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