I don’t know about you, but I’m a fan of science fiction.
Okay, maybe fan is an understatement. I’m in love with science fiction. I have been since I was a gawky, socially awkward kid in high school.
Now, when I say science fiction, I’m not talking about Star Wars or Star Trek. Those are happy stories filled with skirted space damsels and glowing neon planets.
No, I like stories like Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four.
These stories are the dark depictions of what our future could look like if politics and technology spiral out of our control.
In retrospect, I imagine that I liked these stories because I wanted to live out my anxieties in a controlled, constructed setting. I would much rather watch a totalitarian regime rise and fall from the safety of my living room couch than in real life.
And I’m not alone in that. Science fiction that depicts dark worlds tends to reflect our modern-day anxieties.
You just have to look at book sales to know that.
Nineteen Eighty-Four, which focuses on government control and a loss of individualism, experienced a massive surge in popular shortly after President Donald Trump was elected. Fahrenheit 451, which deals with themes of censorship and control, was released during the Cold War, when American anxiety over communism was at an all-time high.
That said, these days the science fiction worlds of the past seem to be becoming our reality.
We now live in a world where we are dependent on futuristic technology that used to be purely fictional.
We rely on social media, chipper personal assistants (hello, Alexa), and computers that fit in our pockets.
And sometimes, by living in these digital worlds, we place ourselves underneath the thumb of “Big Brother.”
And he may not be exactly who you expect.
It turns out that in our modern-day world, Big Brother isn’t the dark, centralized government depicted in Nineteen Eighty-Four.
It’s the tech companies that have the power to control what we see, what we consume, and by proxy what we think.
Do you need an example? A huge one happened just last week, when Google stepped in and issued a massive, sweeping ban that punished every party in an innovative market.
Why the Google Crypto Ban Is a Big Deal
If you’re a consistent Wealth Daily reader, then you likely know I often cover cryptocurrency news.
That doesn’t mean I only write about crypto.
Cryptocurrencies are just one of the emerging technologies I work with on a daily basis. That said, on Tuesday, March 13th, I had to put everything else on the backburner.
Because the cryptocurrency world was on fire. And it was literally front-page news.
In one no-nonsense press release, Google announced that it would be banning digital currency ads on its platform effective in June.
The ban includes ads that feature:
- Initial coin offerings
- Digital currency wallets
- Digital currency exchanges
- Digital currency content
Right off the bat, this ban feels like a sweeping punishment for the digital currency world, which, in fairness, has had its bullies and crooks over the course of 2017.
This ban will prevent initial coin offerings that have gone through the proper steps from reaching a prospective audience. In that, it thwarts progress. And it is a blow to free enterprise and capitalism.
But really, this article isn’t about digital currency.
In the long run, the ad ban will likely have a small effect on the digital currency market, since there are a variety of advertisers and content providers who are still allowing blockchain-based ads.
Digital currency just happens to be the latest example of how much influence tech companies now have in our lives.
Tech giants like Google and Facebook now have the power to quash markets, sway elections, and even slap down capitalism all through a press release.
In fact, just a few days ago, YouTube banned videos demonstrating how to use guns, and Google banned ads featuring bump stocks.
Regardless of how you feel about certain political issues, banning content is a form of squashing freedom of speech.
And, in doing so, it is an example of totalitarian tech.
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Why Google and Facebook Aren’t Going Anywhere… Right Now
The honest truth is that, unless you turn off your computer and crawl into a cave, you probably can’t escape the influence of centralized tech companies like Facebook and Google.
Those companies are making a lot of money by catering ads to individuals like you. In fact, in 2016, Facebook and Google accounted for 20% of all advertising spending on the web.
Today, Google’s parent company Alphabet is the world’s biggest media owner, raking in over $97.4 million in ad revenue in 2016.
All that money is coming from corporations and small businesses that use Facebook, Google, and other platforms to reach potential customers, readers, and buyers. Those businesses include anyone from giant corporations like United Airlines to your mom-and-pop bakery down the street.
That means when Facebook and Google tighten the noose on advertising, it prevents these companies from reaching their audience.
That kills business. It kills innovation.
But we as individuals don’t have the power to stop this. Facebook and Google are private companies, and in being private companies, they have the right to react to political influence or be swayed by outside sources. They have the right to blot out content because it’s politically incorrect.
And, most importantly, they have the right to issue a sweeping and punitive ban on their platform, even though it may potentially punish good companies and good technologies.
That’s simply the world we live in.
But luckily, things probably won’t be that way forever.
The Potential of Decentralized News
In the past year, you’ve likely heard a lot about what blockchain can and cannot do. Blockchain is a powerful technology because it allows individuals to interact with each other without mediators like Facebook and Google.
It allows them to share content, choose their own content, and help their peers.
We’ve already seen a few blockchain projects that have tried to bring some fairness to the media ad space. Those include Steemit, which allows users to reward individuals who produce good content while also voting down and removing bad content from the platform.
These kinds of projects have their own shortcomings, of course. In their early stages, they too fall victim to human bias just like our larger social network overlords.
But with time, blockchain could allow for ad networks that aren’t influenced by tech giants.
Outside of potentially providing a foundation for new news outlets, blockchain could also be used to track the way big tech companies share and store user data. In a recent article published on CNBC, blockchain was proposed as a solution to secure user data on platforms like Facebook. That way, users can track whether or not their information is being shared incorrectly.
These are the kinds of protections and freedoms every person should be rooting for.
Sincerely,
Alexandra Perry
P.S. We’re launching our new digital currency-focused e-letter, Token Authority, next week. Make sure to follow us on Twitter and check out our recent digital currency news update.
