NAfter a good thirty years of the commercial Internet boom, it is difficult to even notice the network on which the wealth of the Silicon Valley oligarchs is based because of all the large corporations. That’s why it’s good if someone focuses on the seemingly shrinking spaces between Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and Apple.
“Another digital world is possible,” writes German journalist Stefan Mey. He sees a “battle for the Internet” and portrays companies, products and initiatives that are successful on the Internet apart from the aforementioned mega-corporations. Mey speaks with renowned experts such as the economist Leonhard Dobusch or the media sociologist Volker Grassmuck, as well as with practitioners such as Florian Effenberger, the former CEO of the foundation that takes care of the free office software Libre Office, or with the hacker Elektra Wagenrad, who deals with the The Freifunk initiative has made a great contribution to alternative network infrastructures.
The career, organizational form and current status of projects such as Wikipedia or its geodata counterpart Open Street Map, Fediverse with its prominent Twitter competitor Mastodon, the messenger Signal or the browser Mozilla are presented. The spectrum ranges from a rudimentary grassroots meritocracy (Wikipedia, Open Street Map) to the obscurantist “friendly dictatorship” of a single financier (Signal). Although they often do not fit into the battle scenario conjured up by the book’s title, Mey goes into detail about the numerous paradoxes that free internet projects have to live and work with.
That sounds similar to the “counterculture” of the 1960s
When it comes to the level of access to the World Wide Web, there is superficially an opposition between the user data-hungry Google browser Chrome and the free browser Mozilla Firefox. However, the latter is financed to a large extent by the fact that Google transfers money to Mozilla in order to be preset as a search engine in Firefox – which also gives Google data from Firefox users. There are also companies that simply give software developers time to work on freelance projects such as Libre Office.
Stefan Mey: “The Battle for the Internet”. How Wikipedia, Mastodon and Co. challenge the tech giants.
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Image: CH Beck Verlag
Developer time, Mey notes, is also one of the most important factors, which is why many successful “alternative” network projects have found their home in Germany. The welfare state that (still) exists in this country, which gives people space and time for voluntary work in addition to paid work, encourages the creation and maintenance of independent projects. On the other hand, the increasing schooling of universities – keyword “Bologna” – is increasingly strangling the freedom that still exists there.
The phenomena examined by Mey are diverse, ranging from primarily journalistic ventures such as Wikipedia to infrastructure, software and hardware projects. “Wikileaks” may sound similar to “Wikipedia,” but its objectives and organizational form are far apart. In order to reconcile this spectrum, Mey uses the term “digital counterworld”. That sounds similar to the “counterculture” of the 1960s and therefore makes sense at first glance.
E-commerce will only work if the free internet is doing well
However, the term is unfortunate for two reasons. First, the problems Mey identified are not unique to Mozilla or Libre Office. As he himself states, the supposed “counterworld” and the world of corporations are inextricably linked. It’s not just that corporations selflessly provide resources for free software projects. Even an “Internet giant” like Meta couldn’t grow so quickly without free software and the programmer’s ethos of exchanging information as uncomplicated as possible – and Meta also contributes to the pool of free software.
Secondly, the concept of the “digital counterworld” is at odds with historical facts. The Internet itself emerged from government and academic initiatives, tinkering and self-organization attempts by talented individuals, which were successful because decision-makers in the state, universities and companies generously gave them the freedom to do so. Projects like Mozilla, Fediverse or Linux are not an “counterworld”, they are the Internet. E-commerce can only continue to function if the free internet is doing well.
Amazon or Facebook could also take place on any commercial computer network such as Compuserve or AOL. They and the investors in the “Paypal Mafia” around Elon Musk and Peter Thiel are the ones who form the actual parallel world. Mey’s research definitely shows this, but the insight has to take a back seat to the depiction of a conflict between various non-commercial projects and the “tech giants”. The real battle may not be between internet hippies and large corporations, but between sustainable and extremely short-term forms of project financing.
Stefan Mey: “The Battle for the Internet”. How Wikipedia, Mastodon and Co. challenge the tech giants. CH Beck Verlag, Munich 2023. 236 pages, br., €18.
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