[quotemstr]

I think the new web will be one made up of closed off islands that use strict paywalls to finance themselves. I also think the total amount of content will be lower and that the remaining platforms will more heavily skew towards "safe" guidelines.

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I don’t remember the internet being like that before invasive advertising and tracking took over...

[ficklepickle]

It won't go back to the early web, but it will certainly survive. Much like life, people find a way. If there is demand, innovators will find a way to meet it.

The webs continued existence is not dependent on surveillance capitalism.

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> Much like life, people find a way. If there is demand, innovators will find a way to meet it.

That's like saying that life is equally good and the US and North Korea because "people find a way" to work around problems. There's a real way in which economic inefficiencies reduce our standard of living. Making advertising worse on purpose is just a race to the bottom, all feel-good crusading without any end benefit to humanity.

"But I won't be tracked!", the privacy people say. So what? What harm will you have prevented?