That's a good take. We have public spaces where free speech is protected. Why is it so hard to imagine extending that into the realm of the internet? Only because we are living through an era of hypercapitalist privatization. A few days ago, it was "People don't actually want to stop working at 65, so we should only offer Social Security payouts at an older age". Rick Allen, the shitbag behind that notion, will face zero electoral consequences, of course. Anyway. With notable exceptions, Twitter gave us plebs a chance to have their voices heard by the actual people verified via the checkmark system. Elon had no idea that this was perhaps the primary allure of Twitter, and abruptly monetized the checkmark system. So funny.
I think we're on the tail end. If I can come up with a decentralized blockchain-based social media infrastructure, anybody can come up with a decentralized blockchain-based social media infrastructure. The whole issue is that the market has grossly mispriced social media companies until very recently because the market has grossly mispriced online advertising until very recently. Facebook (and to a lesser extent, Twitter) are demonstrating the gap between prices charged and value realized and as soon as the air comes out of that balloon, there will be space for actual community-subsidized, micropayments-driven online commons to emerge. The shit's too important to leave up to entitled rich sociopaths, but in general capitalist systems require a crash before they can rebuild into something more sensible.Why is it so hard to imagine extending that into the realm of the internet? Only because we are living through an era of hypercapitalist privatization.