this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2023
1261 points (98.2% liked)

Technology

58138 readers
4717 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

I'm happy to see this being noticed more and more. Google wants to destroy the open web, so it's a lot at stake.

Google basically says "Trust us". What a joke.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 1984@lemmy.today 179 points 1 year ago (16 children)

Yes exactly. This is what worries me the most since I also run only Linux, and I can't imagine even being interested in computers anymore if Linux is not allowed on the web. That would be horrific.

It's 100% critically dangerous and must be stopped.

[–] TheHighRoad@lemmy.world 35 points 1 year ago (7 children)

What really disturbs me is how the recent tech shenanigans have been a long time coming; seems the internet we have come to know for the last 15 years only existed thanks to the ridiculous interest rates post 2008.

[–] Bipta@kbin.social 13 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I'd be interested to hear more of your theory on this:

the internet we have come to know for the last 15 years only existed thanks to the ridiculous interest rates post 2008.

[–] nefarious@kbin.social 49 points 1 year ago

I think this article from the Verge explains it pretty well.

tl;dr:

  • The Fed kept interest rates low from 2008 to 2021. Low interest rates made it easier to borrow money and meant that debt-backed investments like bonds had a low return, so investors favored stocks for a better yield on their investment.
  • This meant tech companies could borrow a ton of money at low interest rates and raise a ton of money from investors through stock sales, allowing them to build services that weren't profitable in order to grow as rapidly as possible. This basically defined the internet as we know it today - big companies offering free/cheap services with minimal restrictions. Companies could afford to charge low fees and look the other way on things like ad blockers.
  • However, now that interest rates are going up, borrowing is much more expensive and investors are less motivated to buy stock, so all that easy money has dried up. Companies are having to raise revenue by increasing prices, adding more ads, blocking ad blockers, etc.
load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (13 replies)