Internet Manifesto

When I published my first blog post on this website, 955 days ago, I alluded to some of the reasons why I chose to do so; it had only been a few months since Elon Musk had purchased Twitter (see for yourself how that's going), Cory Doctorow had coined the term 'enshittification', and (though I didn't mention it at the time) the initial version of OpenAI's ChatGPT was released to the public.

In the interim 31 months, a lot has happened to the internet. Many more people claim to believe in some version of the Dead Internet Theory, using examples such as SEO/keyword stuffing, AI-generated content, and interactions (unknowingly or not) with bot users as evidence. In the United States, TikTok was banned (and then it wasn't). In the United Kingdom, the Online Safety Act, a piece of legislation aimed at protecting children from 'harmful content', entered a new phase of its rollout; big tech implemented age-gating for UK users, often overzealously. Imgur pulled out of the UK after the ICO signalled that the parent company MediaLab would be fined for failures to protect the data of children. Australians under the age of 16 now cannot use big social media platforms. Cloudflare had multiple outages that took many websites across the Internet with it. The tech sector rumbles with a quiet fear of a catastrophic implosion of the AI bubble.

The Internet continues to be an ever-changing landscape, and many of these news stories made me come back to the IndieWeb as a place of stability outside of the corporate web. Personal websites, especially those that don't meet the criteria of new legislation, are isolated from a lot of the big happenings of the last couple of years. To this end, I have decided to codify some of my principles for my website.

Principles

1. Let's Share What We Know

   I believe the world wide web should be users-first. It should be for sharing, for documenting, and for people. I write blog posts and document my hobbies and processes in the hope that by sharing what I know, other people will share what they know - for the benefit of the whole community.

2. I Fight For The Users

   I choose to respect the user. End-users should be able to access the content they have asked for, and nothing they have not, in a way that best meets their needs.

   I do

   • my best to keep this website lightweight
   • provide the source code for this website, under a copyleft licence
   • allow the use of all article text under a creative commons licence
   • my best to make this website accessible

   I do not

   • serve advertising
   • track users
   • use content suggestion algorithms
   • use deceptive/dark patterns
   • use cookies

3. A Computer Can Never Be Held Accountable

   No generative AI is used in the making of this website. I invite you to think about the following questions in the context of AI-generated material:

   • Why didn't a human want to create this content? If it wasn't worth spending time creating it, is it worth spending time consuming it?

   • Is the amount of energy and water use worth the output of this technology, given the ongoing climate crisis?

   • Which people/groups do you see pushing for the use of this technology, and how do they stand to benefit from it? Who stands to lose?

   • Was the model's training data acquired legally, from public domain or appropriately licensed works? How can you tell?

   • Is the generated output accurate, and is source data cited? If not, why not?

Final thoughts

This is a list that I can see myself revisiting from time to time. Like many parts of the Internet that I remember fondly, consider it under construction and subject to change.

I intend to write a longer piece about the legislation that is changing the way that we interact with the Internet and Big Tech platforms, exploring the laws and the intentions behind them - but also inviting thought about the societal shift that the Internet has created.

I would encourage you, the reader, to explore the IndieWeb. I would also encourage you to think about the ways in which you engage with the Internet - and other people on the Internet. Making the Internet a nicer place to be starts with the ways in which you treat others online; chasing likes and followers might give you lots of dopamine, but making real and meaningful connections and simply being nice to others is healthier for you and your online community.