<story><title>Why do I care the open web is dying?</title><url>https://insightbrowser.com/blog/open-web-dying-why-care</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mulmen</author><text>There’s a lot of talk in the HN comment section recently about the death of general computing and the open web.  I’m not convinced.  There’s definitely closed platforms both hard and soft but the web still exists and general purpose computers are still available.&lt;p&gt;When I see these complaints I see people talking about how they want &lt;i&gt;other&lt;/i&gt; people to use the Internet and computers.  That smells like authoritarianism.&lt;p&gt;If you want to contribute to an open web then do it.  It’s not your job to get our metaphorical racist uncles on mastodon or something.  Why would you even want that?&lt;p&gt;The romanticized “old web” was just a product of massive selection bias that &lt;i&gt;still exists&lt;/i&gt;.  If you want that experience it is still out there.  Just stop worrying about what other people are doing.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>hedgedoops2</author><text>One problem with the coexistence argument is state regulation.&lt;p&gt;Because so much of the web is a corporate-operated SAAS, regulation is being made that assumes that everything on the internet is a corporate-operated SAAS. The people who make the laws don&amp;#x27;t understand (or really care about) the potential of networked general purpose computers who can send arbitrary messages and perform arbitrary computations. What they know is platforms and services: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Signal, ...&lt;p&gt;The problem is that things that don&amp;#x27;t fit this mold will &amp;#x27;accidentally&amp;#x27; become illegal by virtue of compliance being impossible for the authors of such software.&lt;p&gt;Look at the upcoming EU regulation about encryption, terrorism related content, copyright enforcement. Everything is aimed at the platform companies but in effect regulates all software as though it were a platform. There always has to be an employee who can process takedown requests, or provide access to cops.&lt;p&gt;In the eyes of &amp;quot;serious people&amp;quot; making laws, this problem does not exist, because everything that lives on the internet is a platform, backed by a corporation. There is no attempt to suppress alternatives, they are just not acknowledged to exist and matter, and thus become banned by collateral damage. If they did exist and had tons of users, those laws could never pass.&lt;p&gt;The internet used to be a series of tubes, now it&amp;#x27;s a series of platforms.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why do I care the open web is dying?</title><url>https://insightbrowser.com/blog/open-web-dying-why-care</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mulmen</author><text>There’s a lot of talk in the HN comment section recently about the death of general computing and the open web.  I’m not convinced.  There’s definitely closed platforms both hard and soft but the web still exists and general purpose computers are still available.&lt;p&gt;When I see these complaints I see people talking about how they want &lt;i&gt;other&lt;/i&gt; people to use the Internet and computers.  That smells like authoritarianism.&lt;p&gt;If you want to contribute to an open web then do it.  It’s not your job to get our metaphorical racist uncles on mastodon or something.  Why would you even want that?&lt;p&gt;The romanticized “old web” was just a product of massive selection bias that &lt;i&gt;still exists&lt;/i&gt;.  If you want that experience it is still out there.  Just stop worrying about what other people are doing.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jakelazaroff</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;gt; When I see these complaints I see people talking about how they want other people to use the Internet and computers. That smells like authoritarianism.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s authoritarianism to politely suggest that people do things differently?&lt;p&gt;No one is proposing that we &lt;i&gt;outlaw&lt;/i&gt; the corporate web… we&amp;#x27;re just trying to make the web a little less corporate.</text></comment>