A lot of people would agree that the Internet is broken, and it is time to rebuild the Internet. However, I am not sure that people would agree on what the new Internet should look like.
- Too much control in the hands of just a few companies.
- Excessive amplification of unvetted content.
- Massive distrust of the content vetters. Vague rules, inconsistent application, etc.
- Retro engineering to enhance security and reduce the risk of fraud.
- The advertising, tracking and data collection built into the business model are somewhat sketchy.
The overarching issue is that the thing that makes the Internet so powerful is exactly the same thing that is breaking it.
The ease of sharing information and connecting with others who have similar interests. With the early Internet, there was a degree of presumed anonymity that also had a self policing quality to it.
But now the Internet is a noisy place where there is surveillance of your every move. There are ways to avoid this, or at least send false signals, but that is not the best way to bring integrity to the system.
Model of Trust
Since the Internet was built on a model of trust and that trust has been broken repeatedly, we are trying to retrofit methods to ensure some kind of fraud prevention.
The focus seems to be on verifying the identity of the end-user of every website. Imagine if all of life required multi factor authentication to enter.
For our “own protection” and to prevent fraud that is where we seem to be headed.
The technical side of the Internet works well enough. There are probably improvements that could be made, but it is the behavior side of the Internet that needs some serious improvement.
The ugly of the Internet is starting to overwhelm the original beauty of the Internet as it rots at the core. It is time to rebuild the Internet
