The internet showed such great promise more than two decades ago when Matt Drudge shook up the media world, followed quickly by WND’s entry as the first independent online news-gathering organization and, later, a powerful independent book publishing arm and an independent film-production company.
There was no Google, at least not as a domineering search engine with an eye to becoming an out-of-control, invasive corporate version of the National Security Agency that would know everything about you, tracking your every move, on and offline – and monetizing you. It was not yet controlling the means of distribution of information, nor had it yet placed the left-wing extremist Southern Poverty Law Center in a position to censor the news – and even define what news is.
There was no Facebook yet, the other corporate giant that would come alongside Google to grab control of the lion’s share of the online ad revenue so together they could starve out independent voices.
It’s a different world today, and it’s a dangerous one in which this Digital Cartel is – without oversight, without checks and balances, without restraint – literally the powerful gatekeeper that is killing personal privacy and free speech.
Matt Drudge saw it coming. I regret to say I did not. But he sold out. I have not.
Here’s what Drudge said in 2015: “Don’t get into this false sense that you are an individual when you’re on Facebook. No, you’re not! You’re a pawn in their scheme. …”
He warned back then how online revenue would be weaponized by Google. He warned how Facebook would control and sell you as product. He warned that Americans were becoming confined on the internet into the “playgrounds” of massive corporations.
“This is ghetto,” he said. “This is corporate. They are taking your energy and you get nothing in return! I’m just warning this country. …”
This post originally appeared on WND News Center.
I don’t think the title of your article matches the content lol. Just kidding, mainly because I had some doubts after reading the article.