Can Crypto Save Us from Censorship?

of Spankchain and Centralization

1. The Problem of Censorship in a Centralized World

As network theory predicts, power is becoming more concentrated in our connected world. The unfortunate side effect is that a handful of entities now control our online lives. Here are a few recent examples of how this raises new problems.

Sex Trafficking and Tumblr

On Dec 17, Tumblr was the latest in a string of platforms¹ to ban adult content. The official explanation was that this would create a “safer” space for their communities. And yet, the timing of this announcement was telling. Only a few weeks earlier the Tumblr app was banned from the App Store for accidentally hosting child pornography. Besides revealing how dependent Tumblr was on large companies like Apple, it showed how Tumblr relied on the biggest platform of all — the United States government.

Since the passage of the FOSTA/SESTA sex trafficking legislation² in April, any business which “knowingly” facilitates trafficking is liable for civil damages. This means that any app or website that hosts illicit material (even user-uploaded) is at the whims of what some call “a trial lawyer bonanza of overly-broad civil lawsuits”³