Yes, we got gatekeepers. We just got the wrong ones
If there is too much violence and radicalization online, it is not because of lack of gatekeepers.
This is just a small, but necessary addedum to my other post about outlawing instantness in social networks. In that post I quote a tech journalist who, in a piece about the temporary shutdown of social networks in Sri Lanka after the Easter bombings, wrote:
“In the early days of the internet, there was a lot of talk of how this was a good thing, getting rid of those gatekeepers. Well, they are gone now”
I find the latter assertion wrong. We still have those gatekeepers. They just happened to become:
- as powerful as sovereign states
- much less controllable or accountable (even during political elections)
- ready to shut down whatever THEY don’t like
- while pumping and accelerating, to unsustainable levels, whatever else improves their bottom line, like “insulating fascists from reality”