Manifest V3: Open Web Politics in Sheep's Clothing

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/11/manifest-v3-open-web-politics-sheeps-clothing

by gildas • 5 years ago

7 1 5 years ago

rektide• 5 years ago

Really really nice write up on the most important frontier of human-computing agency in the solar system, Web Extensions.

It's a little harder to lump in with Manifest V3, but blocking dynamic code & effectively ending the days of being able to have free-form extensions like Greasemonkey is, imo, a colossal tragedy, a huge loss of dynamism & potential. This change is purely to assert higher top down control & order. There is no technical benefit here, this is an entirely political shift to disallow certain kinds of code & code-styles.

I am sincerely super not happy that extensions are only now permitted with fixed behaviors. My dream world is me uploading scripts & capabilities to my extensions, my extensions being script executors for some greater system of agency of mine. Disallowing dynamic execution entirely is like Apple disallowing other browsers, it's insisting on a monopoly of the platform, a way of holding back potential good. It insures Google gets a tight reign, tight control over what Extensions emerge. It's a hugely disappointing sacrifice. I hope we can subvert this & keep a community alive that still uses & explores the use of more dynamic extensions.

Manifest V3: Open Web Politics in Sheep's Clothing

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