The first thing that clicked in my mind when I first heard about the idea of a decentralised internet was politics. Centralized power, decentralized power — we’ve been doing that dance in government for ages. So yeah, I could get the idea on a surface level. Spread the power, let more people have a say, fair enough. But when I tried to picture what that would actually look like online, I had too many questions. Not because the idea is too deep, but because people will somehow turn the simplest ideas into big issues and no matter how fine or freedom-loving an idea sounds, loopholes always find a way to squeeze in. So that’s why this particular topic stood out to me because I love poking holes in big, shiny ideas and this one? Its full of them
So apparently, a decentralized internet is this utopian idea where no single person, government, or company runs the internet. No MZ of Meta. No Buhari crashouts. No government shutdowns. No invisible hand deciding what you can or cannot post. Sounds poetic. But if my experience as a human being has taught me anything, it’s that power doesn’t die, it shapeshifts and man is addicted.
Even if you remove today’s internet central figures, new gatekeepers will surely rise. Maybe it won’t be governments, maybe it won’t be as defined as Facebook, but somebody somewhere will build systems within systems. Lets not imagine a fluid jamboree.
Remember when Nigeria banned Twitter because AMERICA threatened the country’s sovereignty or shall I say, hurt the president’s feelings? People screamed DEMOCRACY & FREE SPEECH, but let’s be honest; when has democracy ever stopped governments from doing what they want? Even the world’s so-called freest democracies censor what they don’t like. Think America! Test them and see how quickly you’ll learn about censorship. in the same vein is decentralization.
And let’s not even get started on how dangerous decentralized spaces can get. Imagine a hidden corner of the internet run by extremists, or scammers building ponzi schemes or pushing fake NFTs (those pixelated monkey pictures, yeah those) with zero regulation. No regulation means no regulation means no accountability.
So can a decentralized internet eliminate censorship? Maybe. But will new forms of control spring up? Definitely. Because the problem isn’t the system, it’s the people who make up the system. Give them power, and they will find new, creative ways to misuse it.
There might be a decentralization revolution but the thirst for control will always stay stubbornly human.
