I think this line of argument is not complete enough. Of course, everything can be used for good or evil. And I don’t think the internet should go away. Because it does a lot of really cool things.
BUT. The internet spreads disinformation (and other ills) at a scale that is off the charts compared to paper, word of mouth, or various forms of radio transmission. I think we have to honestly accept that its efficiency in both speed and reach is a bit of game changer/transcendental/new level.
We’ve relied on the lack of reach and speed of spread to create a “drag” on bad info in the past. People had time to “sleep on it.” Generational knowledge was accumulated. We’ve lost that, and it’s getting worse. The fact that this has evolved so quickly (just 30 years), has prevented society, which evolves slowly, from keeping up with and generating wisdom and rules to handle this new fire. Policy makers (mostly older) worldwide still don’t understand it and want to map experiences from their earlier formative years onto it.
