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I like to compare today's web to radio in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Back then, if you could piece together a transmitter and throw an antenna up, you wer

I like to compare today's web to radio in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Back then, if you could piece together a transmitter and throw an antenna up, you were a broadcaster and many broadcast whatever they felt like. Just like today's internet. Social media is the CB radio of the 1970s and 80s when anyone could buy a small rig and do all kinds of weird and wild things for cheap. But, eventually, something had to reign in all that and the FCC along with international laws and standards came up to calm all that down. In the same way, I think the internet will eventually become licensed and regulated.

pessimizer 1y ago
> But, eventually, something had to reign in all that and the FCC along with international laws and standards came up to calm all that down. No, it actually stayed pretty lively until the 90s, when the government decided that there could be huge monopolies in media, all the stations were bought up by like 6 guys, and were automated to play Disney music 24 hours a day. Not such a neat story, right?
c22 1y ago
The FCC licenses radio broadcasters because the spectrum is finite. Which finite aspects of the internet do you see driving such eventual practice?
krapp 1y ago
The rationale behind the FCC is that it's regulating a limited resource (spectrum space.) The web is not a limited resource (although bandwidth is, but that's a different debate.) The web is also international, and we're already seeing conflicts where one country tries to force their regulations onto another. That metaphor just doesn't work where the web is concerned. I agree that the web in the US, and specifically large social media platforms, will probably be regulated because that seems to be one of the few things both parties agree on for their own reasons. But more so because the government wants to control information and surveil citizens. I think the balkanization of the web as a whole into smaller, closed networks is probably inevitable. But what's most depressing of all is how many people in tech and on HN would be thrilled if one needed a license to publish on the internet just because that would implicitly push most people off of the web and leave it for a privileged elite. As bad as social media can be (and I think its harm is often oversold for political ends) having a space where anyone can publish and communicate and create freely, where different platforms can exist and cater to different needs, where media isn't entirely controlled and gatekept by corporations, is critically important. More important than any other communications paradigm before it, including the printing press. It's really going to be sad when we burn it all down, because it seems unlikely anyone is going to make something as free and open as the web ever again.

pessimizer 1y ago

> But, eventually, something had to reign in all that and the FCC along with international laws and standards came up to calm all that down. No, it actually stayed pretty lively until the 90s, when the government decided that there could be huge monopolies in media, all the stations were bought up by like 6 guys, and were automated to play Disney music 24 hours a day. Not such a neat story, right?

c22 1y ago

The FCC licenses radio broadcasters because the spectrum is finite. Which finite aspects of the internet do you see driving such eventual practice?

krapp 1y ago

The rationale behind the FCC is that it's regulating a limited resource (spectrum space.) The web is not a limited resource (although bandwidth is, but that's a different debate.) The web is also international, and we're already seeing conflicts where one country tries to force their regulations onto another. That metaphor just doesn't work where the web is concerned. I agree that the web in the US, and specifically large social media platforms, will probably be regulated because that seems to be one of the few things both parties agree on for their own reasons. But more so because the government wants to control information and surveil citizens. I think the balkanization of the web as a whole into smaller, closed networks is probably inevitable. But what's most depressing of all is how many people in tech and on HN would be thrilled if one needed a license to publish on the internet just because that would implicitly push most people off of the web and leave it for a privileged elite. As bad as social media can be (and I think its harm is often oversold for political ends) having a space where anyone can publish and communicate and create freely, where different platforms can exist and cater to different needs, where media isn't entirely controlled and gatekept by corporations, is critically important. More important than any other communications paradigm before it, including the printing press. It's really going to be sad when we burn it all down, because it seems unlikely anyone is going to make something as free and open as the web ever again.