[lugg]

The internet is just if not more free than it ever has been.

Maybe the way you choose to use it has changed?

For me, I have more access to free information, than I ever have.

Im trying to not let this fall into a snarky "use Facebook less" reply but it's pretty hard not to when you're making claims like "the internet is not as free as it used to be."

The fact the mainstream signed on and wanted centralised services over many decentralized and democratized services isn't a suprise nor is it an indicator the internet is less free. Simply that it's got some new citizens and they happen to want to do things a different way than you would like.

Don't get me wrong Google, Amazon, Facebook etc having such dominance is frightening and worrying for their own respective and distinct reasons but let's not lazily frame it as the internet being less free.

[bdamm]

Your point is valid and, in the sense of TCP exchanges, true. However for most people "the Internet" is the experience of the services that are available to them via that medium. For the general non-technical, it has always been centralized services, and there seem to be larger more centralized services now than there were in the earlier times. The ability of companies to customize the user Internet experience into a reinforced echo chamber has unquestionably arisen.

But back to TCP. Governments have certainly improved their ability to monitor, restrict, and even manipulate that traffic flow. Is the Internet more free? I'm not sure.

[ian0]

>The internet is just if not more free than it ever has been.

Maybe for you - not so for most [1].

But I get your point. There is indeed much more amazing content out there now than there was 15 years ago. If you can squint your eyes just right and focus in between the billboards..

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_and_survei...