Stephen Downes

The argument here is that "the hectobillionaires have begun their final assault on the last, best parts of what's still open, and likely won't rest until they've either brought all of the independent and noncommercial parts of the Internet under their control, or destroyed them." It is supported with a series of examples documenting that assault, from the abuse of open APIs to hammering by ill-behaved AI bots to closed platforms for things like podcasts. We've seen evidence of all the things Anil Dash lists here, but I think there's a lack of specificity about both the attackers and those they attack. Many of the abusive AI crawlers, for example, come not from the billionaires but from much smaller players. And while it's harder for independent creators to make a living and "go without winning awards or the other trappings of big media," that's always been the case. I'm not saying that Dash doesn't have a point - he does - but that it's more nuanced than presented here.