On the creator side, these technologies offer what amounts to false promises to people who don’t already have a large audience. The creator economy is even more unequal for artists and performers because of how platforms drive a superstar economy that hollows out the “middle class” of professions. A small number of people with huge followings can leverage the new tools to generate more revenue, while a vast pool is left playing the virality lottery. Meanwhile, monetization features render the internet more unequal generally, linking access to an individual’s ability to pay and universalizing an invasive form of personal commodification where we are all incentivized to turn ourselves into products.
Decentralizing the internet alone won’t lift it above politics or save it from corporate co-optation