This is not a new story, but it remains highly relevant to present circumstances. Most people considering this topic focus on social media as mechanisms of social control. This is important, and vital to understand, but it is not the only social control mechanism of interest.
Recently ISPs have been used to block entire nations in the West from accessing free speech websites. Domain name registrars have eliminated objectionable sites by leaving their IPs unresolvable. While social media censorship exists and has more impact on individuals, these other mechanisms are perhaps more insidious, and of greater concern.
After all, we can simply create a new account on Twatter, or bail Twatter for Gab. We can't often choose from a broad market of ISPs, or prevent registrars from simply preventing our domains from being accessed by browsers.
A quick glance at the list of investments undertaken by InQTel reveals strong interest in mechanisms that route around ISPs and extant internet protocols. These are the avenues that are obvious when looking to route around the censorship mechanisms I mentioned above, and it is concerning to me that early development of these technologies is being controlled by the very forces that impose censorship via social media and inject propaganda for our consumption.
It is informative to note that the internet itself was created by such mechanisms. I've called it the Darpanet in the past, for that reason. I note also that Tor is similarly the product of military intelligence, as was the bulk of social media. Given that history, I don't see that potentially secure decentralized means of internet access are likely to be effected outside of that mechanism.
That leaves us vulnerable. Thoughts?
