The Demand for a Censorship-Resistant World Wide Web
So, I had this incident yesterday.
Woke up, had a cup of coffee ready, and started my day by looking into cryptocurrency news.
Source
I then opened my email to find only one new email. This was from Medium Support, having the title “Your account on Medium”.
Alright, I thought, what could that mean? I had set almost all notifications from Medium off, so I barely receive any emails from Medium at all. As unexpected as it was to receive an email from Medium support, even worse was its content.
BS
Source
Immediately brought back memories of Twitter and YouTube suspensions I previously faced and how much censorable the internet has nowadays become. I recalled the first crypto-anarchists like Timothy C. May writing the Crypto anarchist manifesto on privacy and anonymity and was reminded how the media moguls took over a pure and crude worldwide web and shaped it to a dumbed-down version of TV entertainment.
To tell you the truth, back at the beginning of the century, I never imagined there would be this unfairness and so much censorship twenty years later on the internet.
I am against custodians, third parties, and all intermediaries. The future is decentralized and we must promote and protect decentralized and censorship resistant networks. Although, as I also proclaim, not sacrificing speed and mass adoption. This is not about money for the elite.
I would have been writing more about Bitcoin and Ethereum if I found them to be providing a service to the world, but they both grew instead as elitist tools of force and privilege. Decentralization is important, but it has to be shared with the rest of the world, not just the 0.01% that can afford it.
This is my take on crypto and I did not betray my principles just for the “price go up” narrative. I noticed the bankers entering as I have years of experience within the banking sector. If you know your enemies, it is hard to miss them. Wasn’t difficult to notice how they were pushing the story of required regulations for BTC to become mass adopted. This is not a fresh notion, “required regulations” was a discussion for years, almost right after Blockstream appeared in the field.
But I started to digress from the main topic.
I immediately felt sad after reading this email. I felt excluded and censored, but this was not something new to me. This was not about me, either.
I felt sad about the current state of everything.
I wouldn’t be disappointed if Medium replied it didn’t want my garbage posts. I wouldn’t be disappointed if anyone told me I’m a failure. I don’t think I am successful, anyway, so any such criticism is always welcome.
It was a report by someone bitter, perhaps someone that thought we should only write bullish articles on any cryptocurrency and never criticize. Maybe someone that enjoys the strong censorship enforced by Reddit admins and, even worse, the bitcointalk forum. I will not follow any narrative and have formulated my opinion on cryptocurrencies from years of research, though.
But how low is this? Report an author on Medium? If I write something that doesn’t serve your investing interests, you can just report me on no grounds at all?
I know who reported. It was a commentator having no hope of enlightenment. A Robinhood trader that never used a non-custodial wallet, never knew what a private key does and never accessed any Bitcoin on the blockchain. Yet, this guy, there he was. A supposedly Bitcoin maximalist. Or perhaps a CashApp neo-maximalist, as it would fit better as a term.
The current state of the internet is pityful. A crusade by social media and top websites to shape the thought process of the users. This is even worse than banning someone.
The thought police. The censorship and inability to express ourselves.
Twitter treats its users like crap.
It censors content and suspends channels just because they don’t fit its agenda. There is no free speech on the internet today. All the social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) and the content platforms (YouTube, Medium, etc.) are centralized and censorable. They follow the wishes of certain powerful individuals and shape opinions.
This anachronistic perception of monitoring the users’ behavior under a strict set of rules. Rules that often make no sense to anyone at all.
Isn’t this a red flag? The internet used to be full of opportunities and freedom, and yet, it all faded.
It changed in a way that was not immediately understood. Just like this marketing trick, that of slightly changing products without consumers noticing. Eventually, quality, taste, nutrition, and most features of the original product decrease vastly.
This is the internet today. All websites gradually fell at the hands of a few media moguls and individuals running today in the news and entertainment sector.
And you know what these guys hate? Your opinion. Especially when it contradicts their own.
In retrospect, I think I handled it without stress and anger. Well, to tell you the truth, I don’t make a lot of Medium. It was a cool supplementary of my online income for a while, but lately, this has changed and income has dropped a lot. The tax I also pay is 30% and then there are the fees to transfer the funds to a bank with the use of Stripe Wallet. Medium pays nothing else but just about $100 to most of the writers. Some authors with strong followership in social media can make a small fortune each time they publish at Medium.
Mr.Whale, for example, is consistently publishing at Medium and getting paid heftily. Although, it is only a handful of writers (perhaps 1% or even less) that succeed at Medium.
A friend of mine has consistently 400-500k views at Medium but doesn’t make enough to quit his job and focus on writing. Just getting paid what he sees as an extra income to fill some gaps.
Medium is based only on subscription, yet it seems this model doesn’t help but less than 1% of its writers to sustain them without alternative sources of income. These odds are pretty bad and let’s not forget, Medium is consistently a top-100 website at Alexa rankings.
Source: Alexa
Hive - Censorship Resistant
As I understand it, the Hive platform can censor and remove content but on very rare occassions.
Source: Github
This has previously happened in Steemit, so I guess the same can happen with Hive. Although, I have to admit I don't know the exact policy of Hive on this matter. I might be way off, so don't take this part literally. I suppose it is the same for Hive, as with Steemit.
Any account-ban or censorship (deletion of content) on the platform does not affect the blockchain of course. And I am sure it takes a very difficult decision making process to apply censorship on this platform.
Although, there are problems that arise with the exploitation of freedom of speech, as well.
There are illegal activities, that depend on the intrepretation of the law in each juristiction. Yet, there are also highly illegal and immoral acts that can cause an outcry inside any community. There is a thin line between freedom of speech and the exploitation of this freedom.
It is not authoritarian approach to combat spam. It needs to be filtered out as well.
Plagiarism is another menace to any platform. It is not allowed to steal the work of someone else and pass it as your own. Then there are acts I can't even mention that some perform and try to promote online.
The blockchain permanently records everything written at the Hive platform. Even if a certain topic is removed from plain view of the Hive platform, it will still always be on the blockchain.
This is the wonder of blockchain technology. The decentralized blockchains, though, tamper-proof, and censorship resistant.
What we need is an expansion of censorship resistant websites. A decentralized web and Hive is a perfect example how we can build from here.
In Conclusion
About twelve hours later I got the account back, without having to change anything. Medium, apparently, acknowledged the report against me was fake.
I wonder, though, why it takes seriously any report against a member that is properly using the platform for months and always takes steps to protect the audience.
As I expected, Medium also suffered from core centralization issues and cannot properly handle malicious reports. This approach would be acceptable if it targeted a user that posted malicious links and tried to lure investors into a scam. Not a writer that always performs due diligence and explains the dangers of investing.
Anyway, as with anything else, I felt let down since Medium is just another tool of oppression. A machine to police our thought, exploit our weaknesses and throw us to the brick without even a reason.
Medium is yet another censorable website. I will republish this article, at Medium, although I felt it fits better to post it first at Hive. A decentralized platform that doesn’t infringe fundamental rights and freedoms.
Originally published at Hive
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Noise Cash - Read Cash - Hive - Medium - Vocal - Minds - Steemit - Den.Social - Publish0x
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