A lot of the internet is considered private property of someone. Take Facebook or Github for example, they take actions they think it will either increase their profit or lock-in users. They may say they are considering the best for their users. In the end, they need to profit and if profiting more will hurt users, they will do nevertheless.
A better alternative to all of this is either cooperatives or community-owned services. Most people think democracy is a good thing for the State, but do not realise we also need democracy (true democracy) in the workplace and on the internet. Community-owned and operated services can refuse to sell user’s data and making sure everything is not a big market.
Codeberg is a good example of this. They are a community-driven non-profit software development platform. “Codeberg is not a corporation but a community of free software enthusiasts providing a humane, non-commercial and privacy-friendly alternative to commercial services such as GitHub.” (source)
Open Questions
- Which are the list of community-owned services?
- Types of organisations?
- Consensus driven?