The above image was made with stable diffusion using the prompt 'A poster that says "freedom" being stepped on.'
When I was much younger I supported the Green Party in the US. That was back when green had more meaning, and when Ralph Nader was on their ticket. Over time, I noticed that the Greens accomplished nothing and they lost my support. The Greens have more influence in some parts of Europe. And the Irish Green Party is now trying to actively limit free speech. Here's a quote from a blog post about it:
The Irish Green Party followed many on the left around the world, including our own Democratic Party, this week and came out for censorship and speech controls. Indeed, the party went full Orwellian as its chairwoman Pauline O'Reilly called for "restricting freedom" to protect it. O’Reilly’s comments are part of the introduction of the Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022. ... The legislation that would criminalize "incitement to violence or hatred against" people with "protected characteristics," as well as “condoning, denying or grossly trivialising genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes against peace."
While Irish politics don't generally concern me, this is part of a much broader trend of restricting free speech on dubious grounds. Here in the US, the supreme court may overturn section 230, which would make web platforms liable for third-party content, even though doing this would wreck the internet. At the same time, the comprehensive manipulation of news and social media through the covid era is fresh in everyone's minds.
A Quixotic Quest
Against this background, Missouri GOP Sen. Eric Schmitt is on a quixotic quest to realign the incentives of tech companies, encouraging them to adopt policies in support of free speech. From a New York Post article about it:
Schmitt's COLLUDE Act would strip Big Tech platforms of legal immunity for third-party content under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 if they cooperate with government demands to remove First Amendment-protected speech. "Big Tech executives have no business acting as censors on behalf of the federal government, and accountability is coming for those who sought to silence those whom they disagreed with," Schmitt said. ... The COLLUDE Act's full name is the Curtailing Online Limitations that Lead Unconstitutionally to Democracy's Erosion Act.
I'm pretty sure Schmitt's legislation will go nowhere. And anyone who says "accountability is coming" surely misunderstands the way things work. Yet it is encouraging that someone with a title is trying to claw back a little freedom for us. Not every politician has given up on free speech.
More Practical Solutions
Personally, I expect the current level of censorship to continue intensifying. But there are also an increasing variety of ways that online censorship can be circumvented. Hive and Hive-backed platforms, for one. But also IPFS. I'm not aware of any way that a website hosted on IPFS can be censored. True, node operators can create and circulate blacklists, but anyone can be a node operator and ignore such lists.
The great limitation is that there's no back end on IPFS sites. And every third-party software that provides back end functionality represents a theoretical point of vulnerability. Any legal entity can be legally compelled to comply with government censorship orders, even if it's just a startup with a remote database app. Securing an IPFS site fully against the risk of government interference might be challenging, but web3 is at least starting to make it possible.
Blockchain solves the problem of user accounts and crypto solves secure payments. But with only a front end to work with, IPFS still has some serious limitations. A site could be backed by a remote csv or json file that was updated on an ongoing basis. That might be fine for some sites, but no one's building the next facebook on IPFS.
Read my novels:
- Small Gods of Time Travel is available as a web book on IPFS and as a 41 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt.
- The Paradise Anomaly is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Psychic Avalanche is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- One Man Embassy is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Flying Saucer Shenanigans is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Rainbow Lullaby is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- The Ostermann Method is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Blue Dragon Mississippi is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
See my NFTs:
- Small Gods of Time Travel is a 41 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt that goes with my book by the same name.
- History and the Machine is a 20 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt based on my series of oil paintings of interesting people from history.
- Artifacts of Mind Control is a 15 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt based on declassified CIA documents from the MKULTRA program.
I agree that legislation to hold Big Tech accountable will likely not go anywhere. I like that you're reflecting on alternative/new platforms that the everyday person can make a difference and participate in.
And I've never heard of IPFS! I just did a quick google search. Of the things I could actually understand, it sounds super interesting and promising.
There are some pretty cool possibilities with IPFS, but it's just one piece of broader solutions.