The Global War on the Open Internet

I've recently had to make some changes to the forums on this site. As of now, they're in "members only" mode, and new registrations are disabled. This wasn't something I wanted to do; I'd prefer search engines be able to index this part of the site, and I want to welcome new fans and members.

The Internet was once the last frontier of free expression. Anyone with a cheap computer could publish a comic, run a forum, or build a community without asking permission from corporations or the state. That world is collapsing. Laws like the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) in the United States, new state-level rules in places like Mississippi, the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act, the European Union’s Digital Services Act, and Australia’s expanding powers for its eSafety Commissioner all demand age verification, moderation systems, and surveillance that only billion-dollar companies can afford. The independent web is being deliberately strangled.

The excuse is always "protecting children." But the same governments that claim to care so deeply about kids refuse to release information about powerful men connected to Jeffrey Epstein and human trafficking scandals. They will censor a mild forum or webcomic while shielding the ultra-wealthy from accountability. This isn't about safety. It's about power.

By design, these laws drive users off small sites and into the arms of corporate platforms. Once there, speech is tightly monitored, data is harvested, and dissenting voices are silenced. What we're witnessing is the construction of a sanitized, state-approved Internet where only the rich and connected get to publish freely. Ordinary people are told to sit down, shut up, and consume.

Make no mistake: this is global tyranny. This is a deliberate crackdown by governments around the world to gain total control over online speech and expression.

However, freedom cannot simply be legislated away, no matter what the tyrants desire. It will migrate. As the "official" Internet becomes a locked-down shopping mall, real speech will move underground: Tor, peer-to-peer systems, encrypted networks, and private groups. The next generation of the free Internet will not be polished or convenient, but it will be alive, untamed, and beyond the reach of bureaucrats and censors.

If this trajectory continues, no one can honestly call the United States, the UK, the EU, Australia, or any other heavily regulated nation a free society. The open web is being murdered in broad daylight. What survives will be the voices that refuse to comply — the creators and communities willing to step outside the walls of the corporate Internet. Free speech won't vanish, but it will live where it has always lived: in defiance of power.

Spread the word. Resist tyranny. Please do something to help preserve the open Internet, or we will lose the ability to create, read, listen, and watch what we want online.