Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Internet Was Made to be Decentralised and We Need to Re-decentralise It

Video download link



Summary: Why Techrights constantly explores decentralisation and so should everybody else

THE World Wide Web is often portrayed as the pinnacle of innovation or of human accomplishment. But it's just a bloated piece of junk, nowadays dominated by little more than one or two companies. It's also a human 'mindfarm'. It's not a good place to be a participant (subject). Using devices that are attached to people 24/7 (by creating an irrational addiction), those same companies give us "apps" that are actually watered-down (practically useless) software/applications. We're meant to think that replacing mice and large screens with pinches and listening devices (A.K.A. "smart" "assistants") is somehow "progress..." even if those things were not technically infeasible decades back.



"Using devices that are attached to people 24/7 (by creating an irrational addiction), those same companies give us "apps" that are actually watered-down (practically useless) software/applications."More to the point though -- we've come to the point where all major Web browsers are based on just one body of code (we were there two decades ago with Internet Explorer, now a dead browser), IRC is dominated by few very large networks (tens of thousands of people in each), less than a handful social control networks shape the minds of billions of people (for profit, for their sponsors and owners), and about 90% of people access the Web using Windows and/or Android. This is more like monopoly than decentralisation and emancipation of the ordinary person; we're besieged by corporate and government power (conjoined in some nations).

Berlin scenesIn order to utilise the Internet more properly we need to take back control, decoupling and re-distributing the eggs (too few baskets nowadays exist also for E-mail; they've made it hard to run mail relays because of their 'anti-spam' gateways and other obstacles). Unless we lower the barrier to self-hosting and discourage this whole "clown computing" hype (the EPO is outsourcing almost everything to Microsoft) the Internet will increasingly become an instrument of oppression rather than empowerment and emancipation. It's already happening at an alarming rate. As The Federal put it, "the very freedom of expression in India is at stake," but actually the same is true everywhere else, from China to Europe and from Europe to northern America. Consider the fact that for many years Benoît Battistelli and António Campinos have blocked access to Techrights for no reason other than Techrights causing embarrassment to EPO management. There are of course ways to work around that (thankfully EPO staff has a different network provider at home -- or for a phone -- than what's provided by the EPO), but we still try to diversify protocols, access points, and networks. It makes us a lot harder to undermine and censor. The video above explains that this was the original purpose or key goal of the Internet; getting back to the raison d'être is essential. So much is at stake.

Recent Techrights' Posts

MAHA is a Lie, Public Officials Never Valued Citizens' Health (They Still Value Private Businesses, Their Sponsors)
Reject demagogues
New Techrights Turns 2
Today starts the third year of the SSG-based Techrights
What Scares Them the Most is Independent News Sites That They Cannot Control and Censor
Wikileaks was a good example of this
If You Don't Control Your Online Platform, Then Someone Else is Controlling You
be (or become) independent
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Has a Policy on Racism and Sexism
In then future we'll show the misogyny and racial slurs
Links 22/09/2025: Murdochs Might Join Fentanylware (TikTok) 'Investors' (Masters), United Kingdom Recognises Palestinian Statehood
Links for the day
The 50-Pound Note Experiment and the "War on Cash"
Britain is actually seeing a rebound in cash payments, and it's not a temporary phenomenon
 
Making More Work Space
I learned the hard way that less is more in circumstances where more means distraction
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has a New Press Kit for the Weekend After Next Weekend (40th Anniversary)
miles better than social [sic] media [sic] quips, moderated by narcissists and oil tycoons.
Microsoft Had Two Waves of Mass Layoffs This Month (That We Know of) and It'll Get Worse for Microsoft Soon
Will the axe fall again by month's end?
Gemini Links 23/09/2025: Happy Equinox, Photronic Arts, and Perception Cognition
Links for the day
Lessons We've Learned After 17 Years of American Hosting
GAFAM is "all-in" with the "Trump agenda"
Back to Normal Now, We Plan to Do More In-Depth Series (or Multi-part Stories)
Articles (or series thereof) that contain philosophy are important to us
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 22, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, September 22, 2025
Microsoft Media is Panicking Amid Mass Layoffs Every Month, H-1B Fees, and "Seattle’s Tech Scene in Trouble"
In "late stage Microsoft", copyleft becomes proprietary
The Next Wave of IBM/Red Hat Layoffs Being Discussed Already
Red Hat is sort of disappearing the way Tivoli did
Oracle Started This Year With Slop. Then It Stopped.
Passing fads are like this
Distros That Run on PCs Made 20 Years Ago and Don't Use Systemd
Betas for now
The Complaint About Brett Wilson LLP - Part I - Abusing British Women on Behalf of American Men Who Abuse American Women
Transparency is important to us, so we've decided to make this series
Slopwatch: Google News and the Evident Slopfarm Infestation
This is what people get about Linux when they query Google for Linux
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Esperanto Music History and Apps For Android
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: More American 'Censorship' (Retaliation for Journalism), Cheeto "Might Be Losing His Race Against Time"
Links for the day
The Blob Slop
Give me more words, give me some text
Slopwatch: Blaming the Victims for Microsoft's Failures and Plagiarising Phoronix
That's what Google has been reduced to: slop and slopfarms
Links 22/09/2025: Breaches, Windows TCO, and Arrests
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Rabbit Hole and DeGoogling Fairphone
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: Russian War Planes Invade NATO Airspace While Dihydroxyacetone Man Escalates Attack on Free Speech Because of Critics
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, September 21, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, September 21, 2025
Links 21/09/2025: "Hey Hi" (Hype) Under Fire, Fakes Identified; Tesla Burns Family
Links for the day
Google's Software is Malware and Malware in Mobile Devices
Originally posted by Rob Musial
Links 20/09/2025: Hegemony Coming to a Close, Luigi Mangione Ruled Not Terrorist
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/09/2025: "Charlie Kirk Was a Hateful Piece of Shit" and Slop Code Attempted by Microsofter
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 20, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, September 20, 2025