We are witnessing an unprecedented shift in our communication ecology. This transformation is driven by short video social media powered by advertising algorithms alongside Artificial Intelligence that creates a zero click search environment.
In late 2015 Hossein Derakhshan wrote an article in The Guardian just a year after his release from prison. The godfather of Iranian blogging pointed out that the hyperlink is the soul of the open World Wide Web. He noted that Google built its commercial empire entirely on these links. Every external link on a Webpage serves as a window into an entirely different world. These connections allow us to explore and understand perspectives and lifestyles vastly different from our own. They foster mutual understanding and debate while mobilizing people to improve our shared environment from local communities to the global landscape.
The Digital Enclosure Movement: From an Open Web to an Algorithmic Cage
Social media platforms began adopting single sign-on (SSO) and all encompassing closed SuperApp interfaces in the mid 2010s. This drastically reduced the likelihood of users clicking external links to explore other Websites. The subsequent emergence of short video platforms further diverted public attention. Users shifted from reading thought provoking texts to consuming highly entertaining or overly simplified explainer videos.
Advertising algorithms have recently replaced genuine social circle updates and personal interests with recommended influencer posts and promotional ads. This isolation disconnects users from the people and issues they truly care about. Social media no longer connects users or facilitates dialogue. It merely nudges information consumers to spend money or click subscribe to follow influencers and brands.
This evolution makes the ideological mobilization seen during 2008 Malaysian "political tsunami" or the 2018 overthrow of the corrupt Najib regime almost impossible today. A recurrence of events like the 2010 Arab Spring or the 2014 Hong Kong Umbrella Movement and Taiwan Sunflower Student Movement is equally unlikely under these restrictive digital conditions.
The Internet Only Shapes Consumers: Civic Retreat in the Zero Click Era
The decline of traditional mainstream media has already severed the channels used to spread formal civil society values. Print media publications have shrunk or ceased entirely due to rising production costs while moving online to seek digital advertising revenue. The popularization of closed social media and short video platforms further diverts audiences toward trivial content. Users are pushed into fragmented mobile browsing sessions designed purely for time killing self indulgence or digital self harm.
Artificial Intelligence driven by Large Language Models may now further mislead audiences and search users. AI Overviews and AI Summaries often present information that have not been professionally edited or fact checked and plagued by hallucinations. This zero click post-Internet information browsing experience simultaneously destroys the livelihoods of countless Website operators.
Beyond worrying about an increasingly closed and inward looking Internet ecology I often ponder a specific question: Was the Internet truly more rational and profound before the popularization of social media? I recall the William Hung phenomenon from American Idol in 2004 alongside the culture of anonymous venting on the Malaysian oldkopitiam.com forum during the same era. The answer is clearly no. Vulgarity and attention seeking stunts are inevitable products of every era. Yet the early Internet was a technological product that strictly adhered to open linking and genuine dialogue facilitation. The current Internet is an extremely closed environment that blocks external links while relying on algorithms designed solely to maximize product exposure. This absolute closure prevents people from finding inspiration or truth through the fog of sycophancy and kitsch that plagues every generation.
The Illness of the Internet Lies Not in Human Nature But in the Death of Links
Today we see a constant stream of pervasive influencers spreading sensationalist rumors and conspiracy theories. Yet looking back at the 2008 Malaysian General Election era we also had controversial figures like Raja Petra Kamaruddin and purely comedic bloggers like Kenny Sia. We even had political bloggers like Ahirudin Atan and Jeff Ooi who aligned closely with former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad for self preservation after being targeted by former Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi's inner circle. Why did the Internet and blogs of that era successfully promote dialogue and progressive community mobilization while the modern Internet suppresses these very movements? The answer likely lies in the complete suppression of the hyperlink by advertising algorithms.
Human communication mediums constantly mutate within the historical tide of power struggles and profit maximization. The platforms that once drove democratization movements like the Arab Spring are no longer true social media networks. They are simply advertising engines. Google was both a daily search tool and a vital arbiter of truth two decades ago. Now it functions as a broadcaster for SEO content farms and AI slop. These developments are forcing people to flee the open Internet to establish isolated dark social networks. As a result, many people are retreating from the public Internet and creating isolated private networks and dark social spaces instead.
Mainstream media in every era ultimately serves centers of power and capital. This reality makes publishing and communication mediums a perpetual battlefield.
Noisy yet Free: The Internet Before the Algorithmic Invasion
During the pre-Internet era we relied on banned books and underground media to critique contemporary issues. These included publications from Taiwan during martial law or politically charged newspaper literary supplements that used historical allegory to convey truth. We saw a booming digital landscape of online media and bulletin board systems in the late 1990s and early 2000s. These platforms reported truths from a civic perspective and provided alternative analyses to counter biased mainstream narratives.
But what about today? Modern online media and independent blogs have been pushed to the brink of extinction by all encompassing social media platforms and SuperApps. Artificial Intelligence chatbots and search engines further reinforce zero click search behaviors through automated content summaries. This completely monopolizes and homogenizes the information users receive.
The End of Social: Web Platforms are Dead but Sales Machines Live Forever
Consider the ratio of advertisements and recommended influencer pages in your daily newsfeed compared to actual posts from your friends. Today's social media no longer prioritizes interaction among acquaintances. It is a blatant promotional platform.
Why is social media no longer an effective platform for spreading progressive ideas or driving reform? The answer is that nearly all these platforms are now just advertising engines. Social media algorithms reward posts that are brief and controversial or directly related to aggressively promoted products. This is why you mostly see content designed to provoke angry reactions or induce online shopping. Alternatively you see superficial motivational quotes designed to placate you and discourage advocacy for marginalized groups.
The extreme commercialization and absolute monopoly of communication mediums have strangled contemporary social movements. This corporate dominance actively kills civic discussion and public participation.
Social media platforms maximize their commercial interests by locking users into a single closed ecosystem through manipulative interfaces and news feeds while penalizing any attempts to provide outbound hyperlinks to external Websites. This drastically reduces the likelihood of users encountering diverse perspectives outside the platform. As Iran's Blogfather Derakhshan summarized the hyperlink was a form of dialogue between authors that has become exceedingly difficult to maintain as these links vanish. An Internet without hyperlinks is fundamentally no longer the Internet. It is merely a relentless sales machine. Links once turned the Web into a public square while algorithms have downgraded it into a consumer market.
Note: This is the English translation of my article published on Malaysian Chinese News Portal Oriental Daily. The translation was by Google Gemini.
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