Greg's Corner

Is the internet as free as it should be?

The first webpage

Yesterday was celebrated as the 25th anniversary of the internet. While that date may be in question, WIRED has published a great article on whether or not the web has lived up to its promise.

WIRED supposes that the internet was intended to give everyone in the world a voice and not just a select few who have the resources to shout their voice over everyone else. While mostly everyone on the internet has an opportunity to voice their opinion and stories, we are still beholden to a chosen few gatekeepers. For example, if you want to be any kind of content creator you have to follow Google’s ever-changing rules to receive higher rankings in their ubiquitous search engine. Facebook has created a walled garden determined to keep its users within their website. If you want to get people to view your content, it’s almost a requirement that you have to promote your work on Facebook. Want to use Twitter or Snapchat to share your internet voice? You’ll still have to abide by their terms of service and you could lose your voice at their whim.

While the idea of an internet that is totally free is a great idea the reality is that without some of these gatekeepers the web would be a disorganized mess. Prior to the advent of Google, searching on the web was far from an exact science and finding what you wanted was often a time-consuming chore. While Facebook may be keeping their users in their gates at least you can go and share your voice where mostly every one can see it. Without this kind of organization the web would just be a chaotic mess and may have only been a passing fad.