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Overheard someone say 'the internet used to be a free place' and it got me thinking
I was grabbing coffee at a shop downtown last Tuesday and heard two college kids arguing about how TikTok bans are 'literally censorship.' One of them said something like 'the internet used to be a free place where you could say anything without getting flagged.' And I just sat there remembering forums from 2004 where people posted wild conspiracy theories and nobody cared. But also, that same freedom allowed doxxing and harassment to run wild. I mean, I get why platforms have rules now, but sometimes I miss when a blog post could say whatever and it just existed without some algorithm deciding if it was 'harmful.' Has anyone else noticed how much the vibe has shifted on smaller platforms too?
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wren_carr22d ago
Man I remember when I could post cringey fanfiction on my friend's Neopets forum without anyone calling it out. Feels like now the internet just wants to curate every little thing we say.
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gavin_kim322d ago
Wait @wren_carr, isn't part of the fun just looking back and laughing at your old cringey stuff?
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