We once believed the internet would flatten power, democratise culture, and make gatekeepers obsolete. But today it doesn't look like that, and arguably did the opposite. Internet platforms followed a predictable arc: serve users, then businesses, then themselves. Cory Doctorow — award-winning writer, technology critic, and long-time digital rights activist — has spent decades arguing that this trajectory isn’t a moral failing or a tech bug, but a structural inevitability of monopoly and weak regulation. Join Doctorow as he makes the case that the future of technology will be decided not by innovation alone, but by power and ownership. We must rebuild an internet where users, not platforms, finally set the terms.
"Far enough ahead of the game to give you that authentic chill of the future." — Warren Ellis
