The internet is dying a slow death. Instead of being an open exchange of ideas and content, it's become just another vehicle for corporations to make a buck off of everyone. It's now locked down, dumbed down and buttoned down and is controlled and surveilled to make sure no one steps out of line or has their feelings hurt. It treats everyone like fools and children who can't handle reality, a new idea or an opposing thought. Don't talk about this. Don't look at that. Don't think independently. Control. Group think. Manufactured consent. The goal is to have you fall in line with the dominant paradigm that is ultimately driven by economics that make a small percentage of the world's population very rich and solidified in their position. Like all great things that had so much potential but ultimately got harnessed and driven to the lowest common denominator for control and power, it was fun while it lasted.
With so many (mainstream) eyes on the public web these days this was bound to happen.
The wild west of the (pre) 200x's may be coming to an end but stuff will prevail in darknet and private archives or outside western jurisdictions, and continue to spread from there. (It's easy to forget the non-English internet exists too!)
Powerful (gov + big tech) forces push this way for some time now; OTOH I believe the internet remains a difficult beast to tame as long as control doesn't reach China levels.
Also, archive shit, because the internet does forget.
Free flow of thought is dangerous to ruling parties (and fake opposition), because people get to know what's going on more easily. The current push is to leave only a few global players that will share personal data with intelligence services.
For example, the new EU regulation essentially stops anyone worldwide from running any website with user generated content, unless you have money to set up a legal entity in the EU that will respond to censorship requests within 1hr SLA round the clock.
