I remember discussions circa 1995 on how the web becoming commercial would ultimately destroy the democratic potential of the internet to mirror the issues of c

I remember discussions circa 1995 on how the web becoming commercial would ultimately destroy the democratic potential of the internet to mirror the issues of capitalism such as centralizing power and wealth. In 2003 (was it 2001?) there's the 2nd edition TAZ preface by Hakim Bey[3], in 2007 there's this infamous talk "free internet or minitel 2.0"[1] at the Libre Software Meeting[2]. Closer to now there's RIPE publishing "The death of transit"[3] and recently Peter Sunde told us we have lost the internet and it's all about damage control now.[4] I would not say it's a surprise, it's simply the consequences of applying the same model that's making our civilisation fail, removing the conditions favorable to life on the planet, causing the current mass extinction, etc. [1]: https://www.fdn.fr/actions/confs/internet-libre-ou-minitel-2-0/ https://www.fdn.fr/actions/confs/internet-libre-ou-minitel-2... [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libre_Software_Meeting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libre_Software_Meeting [3]: https://labs.ripe.net/Members/gih/the-death-of-transit https://labs.ripe.net/Members/gih/the-death-of-transit [4]: https://thenextweb.com/eu/2017/06/09/pirate-bay-founder-weve-lost-the-internet-its-all-about-damage-control-now/ https://thenextweb.com/eu/2017/06/09/pirate-bay-founder-weve... [5]: I think perhaps the least useful part of the book is its section on the Internet. I envisioned the net as an adjunct to the TAZ, a technology in service to the TAZ, a means of potentiating its emergences. I proposed the term "Web" for this function of the Net. What a joke. Time magazine identified me as a cyber-guru and "explained" that the TAZ exists in cyberspace. "Web" became the official term for the commercial/surveillane function of the Net, and by 1995 it had succeeded in burying the anarchic potential of the Net (if any really existed) under a mass of advertising and dot-com scams. What's left of the Left now seems to inhabit a ghost-world where a few thousands "hits" pass for political action and "virtual community" takes the place of human presence. The Web has become a perfect mirror of Global Capital: bordeless, triumphalist, evanescent, aesthically bankrupt, monocultural, violent -- a force for atomization and isolation, for the disappearance of knowledge, of sexuality, and of all subtle senses.