The Internet Is Sick
▻https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603392/mozilla
▻https://d267cvn3rvuq91.cloudfront.net/i/images/screen-shot-2017-01-19-at-1.46.31-pm.png?cx=116&cy=0&cw=7
Although Mozilla’s diagnosis also describes positives—such as the fact that nearly half of humanity is now online—Surman hopes to convince the public to think about the Internet like other endangered public resources. “Like the environment, the Internet is something all of us live in and are surrounded by and rely upon,” he says.
One thing Surman hopes to get is data about who benefits most from the online advertising that supports so many sites and online services. “Does advertising democratize or open up more diversity in publishing on the Internet, or does it reward well established large players?” he says.
But she also argues that Mozilla’s analysis sometimes falls into the common trap of comparing today’s Internet against the notional electronic Eden of the Web’s early days.
For example, Surman describes today’s mobile app stores and giant social networks as gatekeepers preventing the kind of freewheeling competition that was possible when the Web first got going. Biddle argues those gatekeepers have also helped get millions of people online by providing easy-to-use, safe spaces for people to communicate and explore. “I agree with many of the concerns about the walled gardens of Facebook and the like, but it’s more complicated than that,” says Biddle.