moderation in infrastructure

the balkanization of the internet has been discussed for decades, but it may finally be upon us. the highly centralized public cloud providers are caught in the dilemma of how to handle their increasing power as people everywhere realize how important standing at the high-ground of the internet can be. from the most recent stratechery article:

public clouds in particular would be better off preparing for geographically-distinct policies in the long run, even as they deliver on their commitment to predictability and process in the meantime, with a strong bias towards being hands-off. That will mean some difficult decisions, which is why it’s better to make a commitment to neutrality and due process now.

it is worth reading and understanding the approach that the tech giants will use to negotiate this dilemma. they are trapped between their internal culture, the culture of the establishment, and the interests of their customers, with all three falling further out of alignment every month.

“moderation in infrastructure” won’t be possible when so much power is in so few hands. even if the tech companies had ethics of steel, and executed flawlessly, governments will show up with unrefusable offers.

this fragility, the dependence on these highly volatile centralized providers makes our current culture fragile. when it is stressed, it will break. to prevent this, we should attempt to implement anti-fragile solutions, distributed systems, take publishing and consumption of media back into our own hands by means of RSS, blogs, and other systems that don’t rely on centralized services and AI.

seize the memes of production!