The Enshittified Internet & How We Can Rewild the Internet

The talk traces the internet's history from early academic networks and bulletin boards through Usenet, IRC and the first walled gardens such as CompuServe and AOL. The speaker then follows the shift to browser bundling, ad-funded search and social platforms, and the rise of AI-generated content. The decline is framed as a result of corporate greed and surveillance, and the speaker links it to proposed age verification and online safety laws.

The middle of the talk is a practical list of replacements for mainstream services. Suggestions include privacy-focused browsers, a search option with AI answers switched off, encrypted notes and email providers, OpenStreetMap for maps, and Codeberg or Sourcehut for code hosting. For video and files, the speaker recommends a self-hosted Jellyfin server, Nextcloud, and a Raspberry Pi media box. The speaker also covers fediverse services such as Mastodon, PixelFed and PeerTube, pre-built self-hosting distributions, and Valid, a decentralized network presented as a node-based alternative to Tor-style routing. Offline sharing with a PirateBox-style device is also mentioned.

The closing argument is that older protocols such as Gopher, IRC, BBS and Usenet still work and can be run again. The speaker urges experienced members of the community to teach younger hackers how to run these services, and frames reclaiming the web as a collective effort rather than an individual one.