I was having a chat with 
Free internet
Living in Finland, the government has made a provision that makes access to the internet a "right" and is guaranteed to some degree, even though the connection is not fast - I think it is 2 megs. This is enough for people to be able to do all of their basic internet stuff (like paying taxes) from home. However, most people do not use this provision, they have a mobile that runs 4/5G or a hardwired fiber connection - Finland being the home of Nokia and one of the most technologically educated countries on earth means, the connections are good and as far as I know, there are no caps on data usage and haven't been for many years.
Of course, this isn't the same everywhere.
The only gate
He also mentioned that government agencies have to publish their updates to social media as that is the only access people have to the internet. This is much like those casinos that have no windows, no clocks and a free buffet. While not quite a captured audience, it is one that is largely trapped through economic incentive and is also likely to miss the fact that there is no such thing as a free lunch.
Owned at any cost
It is a pretty incredible situation considering that a small handful of corporations (Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon) not only suck and sort the majority of data transferred on the internet, they also have the power to limit the access to what is likely to be seen. And, governments are enabling them. It is quite insane.
Knowledge is power because of how it is used, and these corporations have leveraged what they know very well indeed, as they have not only been able to segment their markets, they have been able to engineer the environment to ensure that they can control every aspect of it. Thinking how pivotal social media can be in the modern election process as well as social environments, a populace that only has access to the information served through a narrow gateway is at a very heavy risk of being manipulated into or out of action.
With government services pushing their own information through these same gateways, the incentive to skew views and therefore results is also very high, as what is up for grabs is near complete and unlimited power over the population. Control the publicly held narrative, control the public.
Aligned for misalignment
There are so many maligned incentives in regard to well-being when information distribution is centralized as it encourages more reliance and less responsibility over what is consumed. Through the power of AI algorithms, granular identification, segmentation and targeting can be implemented with ease and without noise, as there is no competition in the information market. It is an informational and state-sanctioned monopoly designed to influence the population in order to extract and drive as much value as possible up to the peaks.
In many ways it is a catch-22 situation as people can't afford access to the internet themselves, yet the access they do get limits their capabilities to earn for themselves - to own their experience. Instead, they are driven more and more into passive information consumption that drives them into active consumption of disposable goods and services that have little or no potential to generate personal value.
And when things get bad enough, these same gateways will be used to mobilize populations to whatever ends an authority chooses, and that authority is likely going to be - the highest bidder.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]