[IMSAI8080]

I think the sentiment was to keep your content (and audience) portable, not specifically that you don't rely on anyone else's services. If you post everything on Twitter and Twitter decides they don't like you, then that's the end of you. If you host on a personal domain and your rented web host decides to block you, there's plenty more options and you can take your audience with you and they will never know the difference.

[dusted]

I know it was, but the click-baity headline makes it seem like you're becoming independent of the whims of private companies, which you are very much not if you're renting a host somewhere. You're definitely not a property owner, you might be a domain owner (renter still, I don't know of any domains which you can pay for and keep forever).

[TheCoelacanth]

As long as the services you're renting are commoditizated, you are independent of their whims.

You can easily replace a VPS provider with a different provider that will give you exactly the same service. You can't replace Facebook with a different Facebook.