What if the internet was run by women?

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220628-what-if-the-internet-was-run-by-women

by dredmorbius • 4 years ago

3 4 4 years ago

bbc.com

dredmorbius• 4 years ago

This might be a good time to note that submission does not necessarily mean endorsement.

Sometimes it's an invitation to discussion.

lvqz2• 4 years ago

So, what are women waiting for to offer new things and innovations over the internet ? If it's run by men that's because they create business based on a need that's all. I think the question in the title is as stupid as "What if the electricity was invented by women ?" or "What if cars were invented by women?"

jfengel• 4 years ago

What TFA is talking about is more fundamental than that. It's that the Internet was designed without taking into account things that women would think of and men don't, like harassment.

Suppose early women on the Internet were in a position to say, "Hey, I've just gotten ten dick pics in the last five minutes, and we only just invented the thing. How about we work on that now, rather than creating a ton of institutions first and making it impossible to change them later?"

It's not just that it would be a new thing on the Internet. It might be an entirely different kind of Internet. What if, for example, every single packet were able to be traced to its source? What if sources could be banned?

I'm not saying that's a utopian Internet. I'm merely trying to point out what TFA is trying to get you to think about.

Oh, and it's precisely the case that cars weren't invented by women, and it took a really long time to make cars safe for women. Car safety standards were built around "average men", and were actively dangerous for non-average men -- and also the majority of women.

lvqz2• 4 years ago

I see your point. But for harassment, I think it's one of the price to pay for the anonymity and therefore freedom of speech. An internet without harassment is like a school without harassment, it's a complete monitoring of what people do and say. I don't get how women could have change that without interfering with freedom.

And concerning cars, I have heard of that, but I think cars were built around "average men" because he was at the time the biggest car user and because of the need for companies to reduce costs and make profit (the large scale crash tests are expensive). What I mean is that the situation is more complexe than "Would that thing be better if that was invented by women?"

What if the internet was run by women?

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