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If I don’t want that, I can’t read the article
The true shittyfication I guess. I won’t pay 5 pounds to read it as many of these media is just AI slob or bad journalism
I’m from before the “internet”. Chilled on BBS boards before. Saw it all grow. It had so much potential. Now it’s…..this.
Just like PC”s. I’ve been tinkering with it since I was a kid, the first ones came out just then. I knew windows from back to front after it’s introduction with windows 3.11. Nowadays I don’t even own a computer. Hate windows. Bleh
Its_pipo on
Norway’s actually been pretty consistent about this stuff, they’ve got actual regulations with teeth instead of just angry blog posts about it
RepresentativeOk2433 on
Literally nothing about that article is about another internet.
TBTapion on
I can’t scroll down the page to read the article. I think my adblocker is causing this. Very ironic for an article about enshittification
edit: I might have blocked some form of popup on the page before with my adblocker causing the issue
AppropriateRub4033 on
Can we keep the USA disconnected from it?
nillerbiller on
Richard aged great
HeadOfMax on
Every single part of the “free” market needs a second public option as a back stop against capital.
Every single part of the “free” market that we actually need to survive needs to be owned by the public.
Nothing else will prevent capital from taking everything it can and using every tool in its book to make us not want to use whatever it can’t buy.
Also, I just want to point this out: If you’re wearing a shirt or a pair of pants that has the logo of the manufacturer… you’re also paying someone money to WEAR AN AD. That’s something I’ve never understood – paying a store to buy clothes with a logo on them to advertise their company.
Fucking ads *everywhere*.
Edit – Oh and speaking of cars, don’t get me started on car dealerships that sticker your new or used car with their dealership’s logo on them.
Shanbo88 on
We’re conceptualising Internet II before GTA VI comes out.
RemarkableFinger3600 on
it’s called gopher
lorddresefer on
We can see how well this worked in Cyberpunk 2077.
2Autistic4DaJoke on
Enshittification, in part, is born by monopolies. When you have no competition, how do you make more money? You have to “streamline,” make more efficient, lower quality. It’s the same everywhere.
For the internet? Profits over ethics. The things that get clicks, and therefore get $$ from sponsors, is rage bait, and being an asshole.
What made old YouTube great? MySpace and these other places? A young internet build on the idea of discovery. Rabbit holes and average joes just doing their thing and inviting you to come watch.
JeffRSmall on
But in order to build a new internet you’d need a Weisman score of at least 3.8 and the theoretical limit is 2.89…
sasquatch0_0 on
>“We wanted to show that you wouldn’t accept this in the analogue world,”
But we do. Planned obsolescence has been a thing in recent decades.
doterobcn on
It’s called Capitalism, and it’s proven time and time again how it just doesn’t work. Uncontrolled or unregulated capitalism it’s bad for society as a whole.
windmill-tilting on
Internet 2: Norwegian Boogaloo!
digital on
Sign me up because the old internet is dead
stardust_hippi on
Ironic how ad-riddled the site with the original article is lol
Raunien on
“Services don’t need to be enshittified if we have real competition, if you can choose as a consumer which services you use, and if the market will better regulate all these practices.”
Thing is, we already have plenty of choice and competition. But practically every platform is enshittifying itself because it’s more profitable to just throw a bunch of scammy ads at your users and replace all your support and moderation staff with useless algorithms. “The market” can’t regulate shit. What we need is platforms that are operated as a public good, not as a money-making enterprise. That can actually provide useful services in a healthy manner with real humans at the helm, precisely because it isn’t beholden to quarterly growth targets.
BNOC402 on
Finally we will get the decentralised internet promised by Pied Piper
Abedeus on
We’re now in the Megaman Battle Network timeline. Old Internet will be buried and we’ll all use a Net that is navigated using actual AGI net navigator software.
stikves on
Article talks about enshittification, and immediately shows a full screen modal block to remove my adblocker.
The irony could not have been clearer.
MattofCatbell on
As long as the same profit motivations exist even if you do create an Internet 2 it will eventually fall into the same enshittification
SpandauBalletGold on
And posted with a paywall link.
calamity_coyote on
The biggest issue with the “internet” is social media and aggregate sites like reddit
When the Internet was an open world of fractured communities and websites that all existed independently and gave all of us our own corner to carve out, that was the best Internet.
As soon as they tried to force us together and created environments tailor made to try and have us all believing the same things and acting the same way, it destroyed the very thing that kept the Internet interesting.
CorpPhoenix on
I am over 40 yo, grew up with it since the mid 90’s when the internet opened up to public use in 1995 and I have to say:
You have to be kidding me.
*All* of this got discussed way in the beginning. How the internet has to work as an decentralized entity, from the people for the people, without monetization and basically “knowledge, data and media for free”.
There have been rules thought through and written down, down to the “netiquette” which gives guidelines of communication and behavior in this new landscape, from “never using your real name or infos” to “never write in capslock”.
*You guys broke every rule ever invented.*
Real ID, spyware, insults, scams, monopolization and thought theft, the internet has turned into the device of manipulation and control I’ve fought my entire life for it not to become.
I give up, we already had this discussion 30 years ago, yet the exact opposite has always turned out to become fact.
NotOurCat on
The internet isn’t the problem it’s the people that use/abuse it.
Humans have an innate ability to turn everything to shit. Greed, power, stupidity and self importance will always shitify everything.
A new version will eventually turn to some sort of shit that has just not been invented yet.
32 Comments
Can I subscribe to this new internet?
*Accept personalised advertising and all cookies*
We use cookies and similar technologies to support the Guardian and personalise your experience in other ways. To do this we work with a cross section of 133 partners*
If I don’t want that, I can’t read the article
The true shittyfication I guess. I won’t pay 5 pounds to read it as many of these media is just AI slob or bad journalism
I’m from before the “internet”. Chilled on BBS boards before. Saw it all grow. It had so much potential. Now it’s…..this.
Just like PC”s. I’ve been tinkering with it since I was a kid, the first ones came out just then. I knew windows from back to front after it’s introduction with windows 3.11. Nowadays I don’t even own a computer. Hate windows. Bleh
Norway’s actually been pretty consistent about this stuff, they’ve got actual regulations with teeth instead of just angry blog posts about it
Literally nothing about that article is about another internet.
I can’t scroll down the page to read the article. I think my adblocker is causing this. Very ironic for an article about enshittification
edit: I might have blocked some form of popup on the page before with my adblocker causing the issue
Can we keep the USA disconnected from it?
Richard aged great
Every single part of the “free” market needs a second public option as a back stop against capital.
Every single part of the “free” market that we actually need to survive needs to be owned by the public.
Nothing else will prevent capital from taking everything it can and using every tool in its book to make us not want to use whatever it can’t buy.
Finally, Internet 2
archive link [here](https://web.archive.org/web/20260316111345/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/16/norway-rails-against-enshittifcation-deliberate-tech-deterioration).
The Guardian is completely enshitified itself. Delicious irony I guess
Cyberpunk 2077 would like to have a word
Ah yes, Internet Plus (with no ads and trackers)
We had TV with ads.
Then we had cable TV, where you could pay a monthly subscription to watch TV without ads.
Then they added ads to cable TV.
Then they created streaming services, where you could pay a fee to watch TV without ads.
Then they added free tiers to streaming where you could get ads.
Then they took away the free tiers and then created paid streaming with ads where you have to pay more to not have ads.
Hell, they fucking put ads on [REFRIGERATORS that you already pay $2000 for](https://www.theverge.com/report/806797/samsung-family-hub-smart-fridge-ads-opt-out) and Jeep has started putting ads in [CARS that you already pay $30,000 for](https://www.wired.com/story/ads-popped-up-on-drivers-screens-there-may-be-more-on-the-way/).
Also, I just want to point this out: If you’re wearing a shirt or a pair of pants that has the logo of the manufacturer… you’re also paying someone money to WEAR AN AD. That’s something I’ve never understood – paying a store to buy clothes with a logo on them to advertise their company.
Fucking ads *everywhere*.
Edit – Oh and speaking of cars, don’t get me started on car dealerships that sticker your new or used car with their dealership’s logo on them.
We’re conceptualising Internet II before GTA VI comes out.
it’s called gopher
We can see how well this worked in Cyberpunk 2077.
Enshittification, in part, is born by monopolies. When you have no competition, how do you make more money? You have to “streamline,” make more efficient, lower quality. It’s the same everywhere.
For the internet? Profits over ethics. The things that get clicks, and therefore get $$ from sponsors, is rage bait, and being an asshole.
What made old YouTube great? MySpace and these other places? A young internet build on the idea of discovery. Rabbit holes and average joes just doing their thing and inviting you to come watch.
But in order to build a new internet you’d need a Weisman score of at least 3.8 and the theoretical limit is 2.89…
>“We wanted to show that you wouldn’t accept this in the analogue world,”
But we do. Planned obsolescence has been a thing in recent decades.
It’s called Capitalism, and it’s proven time and time again how it just doesn’t work. Uncontrolled or unregulated capitalism it’s bad for society as a whole.
Internet 2: Norwegian Boogaloo!
Sign me up because the old internet is dead
Ironic how ad-riddled the site with the original article is lol
“Services don’t need to be enshittified if we have real competition, if you can choose as a consumer which services you use, and if the market will better regulate all these practices.”
Thing is, we already have plenty of choice and competition. But practically every platform is enshittifying itself because it’s more profitable to just throw a bunch of scammy ads at your users and replace all your support and moderation staff with useless algorithms. “The market” can’t regulate shit. What we need is platforms that are operated as a public good, not as a money-making enterprise. That can actually provide useful services in a healthy manner with real humans at the helm, precisely because it isn’t beholden to quarterly growth targets.
Finally we will get the decentralised internet promised by Pied Piper
We’re now in the Megaman Battle Network timeline. Old Internet will be buried and we’ll all use a Net that is navigated using actual AGI net navigator software.
Article talks about enshittification, and immediately shows a full screen modal block to remove my adblocker.
The irony could not have been clearer.
As long as the same profit motivations exist even if you do create an Internet 2 it will eventually fall into the same enshittification
And posted with a paywall link.
The biggest issue with the “internet” is social media and aggregate sites like reddit
When the Internet was an open world of fractured communities and websites that all existed independently and gave all of us our own corner to carve out, that was the best Internet.
As soon as they tried to force us together and created environments tailor made to try and have us all believing the same things and acting the same way, it destroyed the very thing that kept the Internet interesting.
I am over 40 yo, grew up with it since the mid 90’s when the internet opened up to public use in 1995 and I have to say:
You have to be kidding me.
*All* of this got discussed way in the beginning. How the internet has to work as an decentralized entity, from the people for the people, without monetization and basically “knowledge, data and media for free”.
There have been rules thought through and written down, down to the “netiquette” which gives guidelines of communication and behavior in this new landscape, from “never using your real name or infos” to “never write in capslock”.
*You guys broke every rule ever invented.*
Real ID, spyware, insults, scams, monopolization and thought theft, the internet has turned into the device of manipulation and control I’ve fought my entire life for it not to become.
I give up, we already had this discussion 30 years ago, yet the exact opposite has always turned out to become fact.
The internet isn’t the problem it’s the people that use/abuse it.
Humans have an innate ability to turn everything to shit. Greed, power, stupidity and self importance will always shitify everything.
A new version will eventually turn to some sort of shit that has just not been invented yet.