The Continued Existence Of The Internet Is The Worst Outcome For The Future Of The Internet

How do things get better? They don’t! Why do you think that they would? How ignorant of history do you have to be that you can somehow see a positive solution to this uninterrupted nightmare?

In response to a Pew Research Center survey about “the potential impacts of online social interaction over the next decade,” industry analyst Susan Etlinger predicts:

“In the next several years we will see an increase in the type and volume of bad behavior online, mostly because there will be a corresponding increase in digital activity. … Cyberattacks, doxing, and trolling will continue, while social platforms, security experts, ethicists, and others will wrangle over the best ways to balance security and privacy, freedom of speech, and user protections. A great deal of this will happen in public view. The more worrisome possibility is that privacy and safety advocates, in an effort to create a more safe and equal internet, will push bad actors into more-hidden channels such as Tor. Of course, this is already happening, just out of sight of most of us. The worst outcome is that we end up with a kind of Potemkin internet in which everything looks reasonably bright and sunny, which hides a more troubling and less transparent reality.”

That’s the worst outcome? That’s just like life! Good luck, it’s all nightmares until it ends, which cannot come soon enough but of course won’t. [Via]

The Future of Free Speech, Trolls, Anonymity and Fake News Online