The internet was supposed to be where the free exchange of knowledge and ideas happened. But has it instead become a place increasingly controlled by a handful of companies - where inconvenient ideas are suppressed, and the original promise of an open web has been quietly hijacked?
Welcome to Ruined By The Internet? - the show where we examine how technology is shaping modern life - whether we want it to or not.
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We're joined by Wouter Constant - co-founder and researcher at Nostr, an open protocol for decentralised, censorship-resistant communication - who is actively building the alternative and understands better than most how the internet lost its way.
In this episode we investigate how the internet shifted from open network to corporate controlled platform, examine the role of government in shaping what we can and can't say online, explore the promise and challenges of decentralised alternatives like Nostr, and ask whether a genuinely free internet is still possible - or whether centralisation always wins in the end.
(00:00) The promise of the internet and how it was abandoned
(02:54) The rise of centralised platforms and how it happened so fast
(05:54) Investment, network effects, and how corporations captured the web
(09:00) Government involvement and the censorship dynamic nobody talks about
(12:02) Decentralisation and freedom of association: what the alternative looks like
(15:07) The real challenges of building a decentralised internet
(18:08) Platform responsibility and what user experience costs us
(27:09) Who is actually responsible for what happens in digital spaces?
(29:44) The evolution of decentralised social media
(32:30) Nostr versus Bluesky: what's the difference and does it matter?
(35:30) Identity and reputation in a decentralised world
(39:16) How decentralisation handles content authenticity
(44:25) Navigating AI-generated content in an open protocol
(50:51) Building a safer internet for future generations: is it still possible?
Key takeaways:
• Shift from Protocols to Centralised Platforms: Over time, open, collaborative protocols were overshadowed by centralised, corporate walled gardens (like Facebook, Twitter, and Google) that locked data, identities, and social graphs into proprietary platforms to maximise advertising revenue.
• Vulnerability of the Corporate "Walled Garden": Entrusting global communication to a handful of centralised tech giants has created massive systemic vulnerabilities, fundamentally breaking the original promise of a free, open town square.
• Return to Open-Source Principles: Nostr (Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays) is not a platform, but an open, decentralised cryptographic protocol designed to replace centralised social media, making communication inherently resistant to top-down censorship.
• Separation of Identity, Data, and Infrastructure: Decoupling identity and content from the underlying infrastructure allows users to seamlessly move their entire social network between different applications without fear of being banned or losing their data.
If this episode got you thinking, check out:
Common Ground: From Dialogue to Digital Battlefield?
https://pod.link/1825601333/episode/ODkzNWY5Y2UtYTFmMy00NGQxLTk1YWMtMjk2ZDNkYjg0NDU4
Child Safety: Private Platforms Full of Private Predators?
https://pod.link/1825601333/episode/M2U3MWEyMGEtM2I3NC00ZjUxLTk0YzItYTY3NDhmZjUwNTBm
Decentralisation: Freedom or Fragmented Control?
https://pod.link/1825601333/episode/NTA5ZDJiM2YtZjc1NC00MzQzLWFkMTQtYjQ0N2M3ZGI4YWU1
Guest links - Wouter Constant
Nostr: https://nostr.com/
Web of Trust Foundation: https://weboftrustfoundation.com/
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