@drq Oh, come on. Ads are not the problem. Paid access is not the problem. It all existed before. Magazines and other press, entertainment, various facilities like parks and toilets... It can be free, it can be paid, it can be sponsored.

The fucking problem we have is how ads and data mining got out of hand. I have no problem with ads themselves - but not tracking ads. I have no problem if some website (or real life facility) asks me to register - but please don't fucking fingerprint and track me without my knowledge and consent. It is like having hidden cameras installed everywhere. I have no problem if some service costs money - I might buy it or not but please make the deal clear and upfront. No hidden fees, etc.

Imagine all of this is effectively banned. No more tracking ads, no more profiling, no more data brokering. It just doesn't exist anymore. Will the Internet fall apart? No, it will not. It will be more like what we had twenty years ago. Maybe Facebook will become premium service. Maybe Cloudflare won't be free anymore. Maybe you won't be able to get TERABYTES of storage, unlimited videoconferencing and shit for free.

But the Internet will be there. And it will be nice enough.