I'm not entirely convinced that the net is the saviour you claim. For example, I'm British but hadn't seen most of these points until more than two years later: [1]
Presumably I didn't see these adverts because I was categorised as a Remain voter, but I can't imagine what my opinion would be if every time I went to Facebook I saw "leave the EU to save the polar bears". I'd like to say I'd immediately search the truthfulness but, honestly, I've got better things to do with my life than google every comment I see online.
The Internet provides a great way for information to be open, but not everything on the Internet is necessarily transparent. Argubly, this is a good reason for regulation on things like advertising to make it more transparent (although what that regulation is, I don't know) which I think would be a case of "politics saving the net".
Of course, there's the "old way" of information being shared which is subject to failure too[2]. But a centralised and curated method like newspapers makes it easier to combat falsehoods.
Overall, I do agree that the Internet is a great tool for information sharing and I think we're better with it, but it's not without its own issues.
Presumably I didn't see these adverts because I was categorised as a Remain voter, but I can't imagine what my opinion would be if every time I went to Facebook I saw "leave the EU to save the polar bears". I'd like to say I'd immediately search the truthfulness but, honestly, I've got better things to do with my life than google every comment I see online.
The Internet provides a great way for information to be open, but not everything on the Internet is necessarily transparent. Argubly, this is a good reason for regulation on things like advertising to make it more transparent (although what that regulation is, I don't know) which I think would be a case of "politics saving the net".
Of course, there's the "old way" of information being shared which is subject to failure too[2]. But a centralised and curated method like newspapers makes it easier to combat falsehoods.
Overall, I do agree that the Internet is a great tool for information sharing and I think we're better with it, but it's not without its own issues.
[1] https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1059068463933743104.html [2] https://blogs.ec.europa.eu/ECintheUK/euromyths-a-z-index/