Discussion
What happened to the fight for the internet? https://dustycloud.org/blog/what-happened-to-the-fight-for-the-internet/
A new blogpost from me. I believe the fight for keeping the internet free is more important than ever but also under more threats than ever.
And the irony is, centralization is partly to blame: people don't feel like the internet is theirs anymore.
But we can't leave it there.
We HAVE to act.
For our sake, for our kids' sake, for ourselves, for the future.
Fully agree here!
@cwebber Decentralize the internet to HELL AND BACK. We can take back control 🔥
@cwebber Parents are tired and they want to just give they kids the phones and net-toys and then force large corps do the supervision.
Supervision is tiring because parents no longer know how to trust things on the net.
People no longer know how to trust because (and I hate to say it) the tech professionals and enthusiasts gave up on the PKI model. They say expecting users to recognize incorrect domains is bad (people will just "click through") and placing the burden on users is bad. So they place the burden on users anyway, testing them with fake phishing emails and issuing vague, non-deterministic guidelines for staying safe and just keep hammering users with "you failed" notices in hopes they can eventually train their cyber ninjas with repeated blows to the head.
What's left? The "safe" choices you get in the Apple or Google app store.
We lost this battle (and really, the whole net) because we abdicated responsibility for promoting a bare-minimum net culture that starts with PKI use. Right? We are supposed to use Let's Encrypt to promote encryption only – users unaware – with no connotation of identity. So the culture has devolved into "safe" app store marketing and the rest of us who lather about the exploits of the day, red-teaming and other sources of cyber intrigues.
If we are to act, we have to get our priorities straight and also admit that we were wrong to promote the Internet with a devil-may-care "live the adventure" vibe. To save PKI, we need to rehabilitate the standing of CAs and start giving users clear, deterministic instructions about who and how they can trust. We probably also need to develop customs and common sense about what is too much reliance on remote services, and also to promote the use of inherently more secure endpoints that are better by dint of their improved architecture and not by centralized gatekeeping of applications.
@cwebber I think it's a combination of exhaustion and ignorance.
The people that don't know or remember that the internet is more than five companies are perfectly happy to live in their little bubbles. The people that are aware are not as numerous as the ignorant, and not as well-funded as the opposition. The bad bills just keep coming and they don't stop coming.
Hell I'm not even a real activist and just keeping abreast of all the anti-internet bullshit coming down the pipe feels *exhausting*, let alone trying to explain to others why it's all bad. It feels inevitable to the point where I just want to throw my paws up and let people live with the surveillance state they voted for.
@cwebber was just talking yesterday about how computer scientists stopped SDI even earlier than that, and where people are these days.
@cwebber beautifully written, thank you!
I'm a silly furry creature on the Internet. I'm pan. I have a trans partner. The bulk of my friends and family are queer and/or neurodivergent.
I am fucking TERRIFIED of the idea that I might have to choose between my actual life and a "work safe" persona to do basic things like "maintain a bank account" and "own property" and "have access to medical care".
And that's exactly the direction a closed, age-verified, ID-required internet is taking us. Make no mistake about it, it's not about protecting children or eliminating fraud (the first clue should be that the proponents of these bills are mostly child rapists and/or virulent fraudsters).
It's about documenting, monitoring, and eventually unpeopling "undesirables".
And the definition of "undesirables" can change with one stroke of a pen.
If this blogpost resonates with you, please spread it around, and/or write your own thing! And spread it to and speak up in places that AREN'T just the fediverse.
Please.
We need to fight.
Thank you. 💜
@cwebber Thank you for writing this. There's simply so much shit going on at once that you have to be very firmly entrenched in your beliefs that openness of the internet is one of the underpinnings of a society that uses it all the time, in order to priorize it in the current rancid political space.
In my limited experience, people are simply burnt out. In the early 2010s you could feel a vibe that people cared, that you were not alone, and most importantly there was the (mostly mistaken, IMO) belief that you could actually make your voice heard; you actually can but it takes more dedication than ever.
@slowfallinward I think, for one thing, we have to build and use more p2p tech.
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