You Can’t Say That on the Internet ⇥ nytimes.com

Evgeny Morozov on the contrast between the ideals and the reality of the internet:

A bastion of openness and counterculture, Silicon Valley imagines itself as the un-Chick-fil-A. But its hyper-tolerant facade often masks deeply conservative, outdated norms that digital culture discreetly imposes on billions of technology users worldwide.

What is the vehicle for this new prudishness? Dour, one-dimensional algorithms, the mathematical constructs that automatically determine the limits of what is culturally acceptable.

The internet is, at once, a completely open and level playing field and a tightly-controlled platform. Intriguing.