Maybe we shouldn't want a fully decentralized web
I disagree with the author in very strong terms - but only with their premises, not with their conclusions. The conclusions are accurate - if you believe that the ability to censor public discourse is necessary to maintain a stable and desirable society, then of course IPFS and similar projects are counter-productive.<p>(FWIW it&#x27;s refreshing to actually see this being argued openly and honestly, instead of the usual &quot;of course we support free speech, but ...&quot; tripe.)<p>The parade of horribles presented as evidence is not particularly convincing, though, although bias (either way) can make a big difference here. But while we&#x27;re at it, since the blog post mentioned the Christchurch shooting in 8chan context as an example of the case where censorship would be desirable, I want to talk about the censorship that happened <i>after</i> - specifically, the attempts to take down copies of the terrorist&#x27;s manifesto that were floating around. NZ apparently had some emergency legal powers to criminalize distribution outright, which is bad enough. But the real mess was Australia; they didn&#x27;t have any legal pretext to ban it, but there was a strong social consensus - among people who make decisions, anyway - that &quot;somebody ought to do something&quot;.<p>So, the Australian ISPs made a synchronized <i>private</i> effort to censor it, to the point of domain-blocking several large forums where the manifesto was posted and not removed by the local admins (because it didn&#x27;t violate their lax rules, nor local laws!), while the government caught up on legislation. Effectively, it was a private censorship cartel, and the citizens that didn&#x27;t like the outcome had no recourse - not even the usual democratic mechanisms to repeal the laws etc, since there were no laws involved. This is the kind of stuff that the present non-decentralized structure of the Internet makes possible, and the inherent power makes it a near certainty that it&#x27;ll be abused eventually, whether for cynical political suppression or a do-gooder witch hunt. I&#x27;d rather take my risks with more decentralization - some parts might stink more than others, but at least I&#x27;ll have a choice.