I found this link whilst tracking down some old tekno mixes from the 1990s/2000s. I remember Schnews; my personal view on it is although they were a good info site they did get sidetracked by the “hedonistic dissent as a fashion statement” culture which infested Europe from around 1999 to mid 2000s (until things got really serious from global conflicts in Mid East / former USSR spilling over into the affluent countries); it got to the point of them even trying to “spin good news” and add fluff like fashion type articles (not even DIY type fashion) in the same way the Grauniad is notorious for these days.
However what one of their former reporters say about the effects of the US-dominated social networks is 100% spot on.
I am old enough to remember how the Internet was firewalled off between different European countries and its use restricted due to resourcing limitations as much as politics. The tech behind it all is the same stuff we use today; and the Internet is based on a lot of agreements between private companies. There might be marginally less regulation of content unlike traditional telecommunications and broadcasting, but this also means there is no obligation for any of these companies to provide a minimum service level to those who are not willing to pay a premium price or transmit competing organisations data. Some of the things being done by the big US networks are making the Internet less resilient as a whole.
Facebook killed the internet star: reflections on radical media | Corporate Watch
