The alternative to regulation is if innovators could figure out a model where micro-transactions or payment for content actually work. Because it's not like ad

The alternative to regulation is if innovators could figure out a model where micro-transactions or payment for content actually work. Because it's not like advertising is even that lucrative to begin with. Even Facebook, which is the king of ad monetization, only does about $120 annual ARPU for American users (and a lot less in other regions). That sounds like a lot until you realize the average user spends 38 minutes a day on the site. That's 30 cents per hour of use. That comes with the clutter of the ads, the loss of privacy from all the tracking, much slower page loads, and lower content quality since the content algorithm's optimizing to maximize ad spend rather than user delight. I'd posit that the vast majority of Facebook users be much happier with $0.30 an hour for the much better ad-free experience. And that's even in the most extreme ad-tilted case. Now consider a run-in-the-mill site like Reddit. Their annual ARPU is only about $1.00. That means Reddit's literally monetizing fractions of a penny per hour of use. I'm absolutely positive that all but those who are so cheap they're on verging on mentally ill, would pay one penny an hour to use Reddit.