The web was created to allow anyone to publish ideas and art. In the 1990s everything was posted by creators on their own website. Indexers like Yahoo!, Alta Vista, and Google would help people find their work. It was a much more level playing field with fierce competition amongst the indexers to help consumers find creations.
It succeeded for a time, but today indexers like YouTube and Twitter (and in a sense, Wikipedia) completely dominate whichever form of creation they specialize in. These companies can very easily silence those with whom they disagree or who threaten their power. They very often act like they own the content that they index and they do not allow easy egress.
It succeeded for a time, but today indexers like YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram (and in a sense, Wikipedia) completely dominate whichever form of creation they specialize in. These companies can very easily silence those with whom they disagree or who threaten their power. They very often act like they own the content that they index and they do not allow easy egress.
Alternatives platforms exist but have negligible reach and negligible content. Creators are forced to use the powerful entity because that's how they reach people, and consumers are forced to use the powerful entity because that's where all the content is.
