Fightback: Web3 as the ultimate catalyst for censorship resistance

Couldn't attend Transform 2022? Check out all the summit sessions in our on-demand library now! Look here.

Unless you haven't been paying attention to the major news, you know full well that the internet is under attack. Net neutrality is under threat from Internet Service Providers (ISPs), governments are cracking down on online content, and social media platforms are censoring users more than ever.

This increased attitude of censorship has led many people to believe that the Internet is no longer the free and open platform it once was. And while that may be true to some extent, there is still a corner of the internet that remains relatively uncensored: the decentralized web, or Web3.

So where does the need to censor dissenting voices on the internet come from? What are the conditions that allow such a thing? We will do a complete case study in this article.

China and tolerant censorship

One of the best-known examples of internet censorship is the Great Firewall of China, a system of filters and blocks that the Chinese government uses to control what its citizens can see online. Although the Great Firewall is often spoken of in whispers, it is important to remember that it is not exhaustive.

Event

MetaBeat 2022

MetaBeat will bring together thought leaders to advise on how metaverse technology will transform the way all industries communicate and do business on October 4 in San Francisco, CA.

register here

The Great Firewall of China is not absolute; it is permeable. It does not block everything, but rather blocks selectively, in a way that is designed to be partially permeable, to allow some information in and out.

The Chinese government does not block every website or piece of information it disagrees with. Instead, it employs a strategy of what might be called “tolerant censorship”. This concept has been analyzed in depth by Ronald Deibert, director of the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto.

In other words, the Great Firewall of China does not attempt to completely isolate its citizens from the rest of the world. Instead, it allows a certain amount of information to flow in and out, while controlling the overall narrative.

The Chinese government has been able to get away with this form of censorship because it controls all major internet infrastructure in the country. This gives them a significant advantage over other countries when it comes to censoring online content.

However, this advantage is starting to wear off. As more and more people around the world access the internet, the need for censorship-resistant platforms that cannot be controlled by any government becomes ever more apparent.

Silicon Valley and the Great American Repression

First of all, this is in no way an expression of political inclination. The following is a technical analysis of how social media companies in the United States censor their users.

It's no secret that social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have increasingly censored content in recent years. This trend only accelerated in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, with Facebook and Twitter implementing new policies that crack down on so-called “misinformation.”

While these new policies are well-intentioned, they have had a chilling effect on free speech online. In particular, they have led to the censorship of a great deal of political content that falls outside mainstream discourse.

Of course, there is a valid argument that dangerous narratives are best left out of the mainstream. However, it is...