Internet for the People - The Library of the Uncommons

Paperback, 192 pages

English language

Published Aug. 18, 2021 by Verso Books.

ISBN:: 978-1-83976-202-4

(2 reviews)

In Internet for the People, leading tech writer Ben Tarnoff offers an answer. The internet is broken, he argues, because it is owned by private firms and run for profit. Google annihilates your privacy and Facebook amplifies right-wing propaganda because it is profitable to do so. But the internet wasn't always like this—it had to be remade for the purposes of profit maximization, through a years-long process of privatization that turned a small research network into a powerhouse of global capitalism. Tarnoff tells the story of the privatization that made the modern internet, and which set in motion the crises that consume it today.

The solution to those crises is straightforward: deprivatize the internet. Deprivatization aims at creating an internet where people, and not profit, rule. It calls for shrinking the space of the market and diminishing the power of the profit motive. It calls for abolishing the walled gardens …

In Internet for the People, leading tech writer Ben Tarnoff offers an answer. The internet is broken, he argues, because it is owned by private firms and run for profit. Google annihilates your privacy and Facebook amplifies right-wing propaganda because it is profitable to do so. But the internet wasn't always like this—it had to be remade for the purposes of profit maximization, through a years-long process of privatization that turned a small research network into a powerhouse of global capitalism. Tarnoff tells the story of the privatization that made the modern internet, and which set in motion the crises that consume it today.

The solution to those crises is straightforward: deprivatize the internet. Deprivatization aims at creating an internet where people, and not profit, rule. It calls for shrinking the space of the market and diminishing the power of the profit motive. It calls for abolishing the walled gardens of Google, Facebook, and the other giants that dominate our digital lives and developing publicly and cooperatively owned alternatives that encode real democratic control. To build a better internet, we need to change how it is owned and organized. Not with an eye towards making markets work better, but towards making them less dominant. Not in order to create a more competitive or more rule-bound version of privatization, but to overturn it. Otherwise, a small number of executives and investors will continue to make choices on everyone’s behalf, and these choices will remain tightly bound by the demands of the market. It's time to demand an internet by, and for, the people now.

2 editions

anaulin@bookwyrm.social reviewed Internet for the People by Ben Tarnoff

A clarifying and inspiring unified history and path towards a better Internet

4 stars

A concise, worthwhile read. The first two thirds summarize the history of the internet from the lens of increased privatization and an intensification of the profit motive, aided by public policy and political climate. The last portion offers some alternative paths towards a more democratic, truly inclusive internet.

I appreciated that Tarnoff emphasizes the need for political and social change, and steers away from mere techno-solutioning. I didn't find anything particularly novel ideas, but the unifying theory of it was clarifying and inspiring.

Taking a star off my rating because I always yearn for a more concrete "go here, plug in this way" call to action in such books. I know it's probably very hard for such a book to have such practical pointers that would work for every reader, but still I hope.

Kat reviewed Internet for the People by Ben Tarnoff

Review of 'Internet for the People' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

One of the best books on the history of the internet written in this century. It begins with the important histories of the '90's, and then moves onto the latter eras that have so far shaped our poor excuse for an information highway. But it offers hope, all at the same time.