082: Reclaiming the Internet (w/ Mike Masnick)
ReImagining Liberty · ReImagining Liberty
June 23, 202551m 24s
Audio is streamed directly from the publisher (podcasts.helloaudio.fm) as published in their RSS feed. Play Podcasts does not host this file. Rights-holders can request removal through the copyright & takedown page.
Show Notes
<html><p>What's happened to Twitter, or now X, is the clearest example of why it's actually not great that so much of our digital communication is controlled by just a few firms and, through them, the whims of guys like Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg. These single points of control not only mean a product we love today can be unlovable, or just gone, tomorrow, but also give more dangerous actors, like governments, avenues to use that centralization against us.</p><p>The alternative is to revive what the internet once was: a decentralized and much more open place. I think this is really important, not just because it makes our digital communication less subject to arbitrary will, but also because it enables us to carve out communities for ourselves.</p><p>My guest today wrote what is probably the most important essay about this need for decentralization, called <a href="https://knightcolumbia.org/content/protocols-not-platforms-a-technological-approach-to-free-speech" target="_blank">"Protocols, Not Platforms,"</a> which inspired some of the most exciting current developments, including Bluesky. <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/mmasnick.bsky.social" target="_blank">Mike Masnick</a> is an expert in technology and technology policy and the editor of the indispensable blog, <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/" target="_blank">Techdirt</a>. He's also on the board of directors of <a href="https://bsky.social/about" target="_blank">Bluesky</a>.</p></html>