Centralization Strikes Again - January 2021 Edition
“The decentralization of our core digital infrastructure unearths a new paradigm. One that is unrestricted by the motivations of any individual or group. It empowers humanity, frees us from centralized models, and reveals a more egalitarian path — where our fragmented perspectives can find unity and community in our individual visions for the world.” - Aidan Hyman
Where have centralized technologies, including those who limit our access to it, failed us this month? Let’s take a look at our January month in review:
Timeline
Jan 0 - Many governments, including China, Russia, and India continue to pervasively censor the internet for its citizens. Source
Jan 4 - Amazon Web Services (AWS) brings down Slack, Notion & many other websites and services, due to routing problems. Mass work panic ensues. Source & RCA
Jan 8 - Twitter bans Sci-Hub, the website that posts millions of freely accessible scientific articles from subscription journals. It is an act many researchers in India are crying afoul as the Twitter account has been primarily used to discuss open science issues, and is seen as a matter of public interest. Source
Jan 8 - Apple and Google ban Parler from their respective app stores. Parler is well known for being an alternative social media platform, famous for being the primary means of organization that contributed to the storming of the Capitol Hill. Source
Jan 12 - Former POTUS Donald Trump gets banned by just about every social media platform. 👏 This 👏 is 👏 the 👏 president we are talking about here, all controversy aside. Source
Jan 14 - Iran removes Signal Messaging app from Iranian app stores citing "criminal content", after many in the country flock to download the app after WhatsApp releases invasive privacy policy. Signal was previously used for organizing some protests. Source & Source
Jan 22 - The Putin government attempts to remove political opposition Alexei Navalny's anti-corruption video from the internet. Source
Jan 28 - Discord shuts down the WallStreetBets server, citing “hateful and discriminatory content after repeated warnings” Source
Jan 28 - Subreddit WallStreetBets briefly set to private after it was banned from Discord. Source
Jan 28 - Robinhood & other institutions prevent users from trading GameStop, AMC, and other assets during infamous Reddit push for a short squeeze against Wall Street hedge funds. Source
Jan 29 - Mobile internet services shutdown in the Northern Indian state of Haryana due to Farmers' Protests. The government claims to be "stemming the flow of misinformation". Source
We are planning for an Op-Ed section in the future, and we need contributors!
If you would like to contribute to the Op-Ed in next month's edition of Centralization Strikes Again, then please email tim.ho@chainsafe.io. We would love to hear your thoughts on how we can leverage decentralized technologies as a solution to the many problems centralized systems present for humanity!
This is our first issue, and like all great things, start humble and, well... unpolished. If you have any feedback, please don't hesitate to send them my way.
Learn more about ChainSafe at https://chainsafe.io/, through our Medium, via Twitter, or by visiting the ChainSafe GitHub.
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