I think the main issue that has allowed the likes of Google and Facebook to grow to a dangerous size is the ability to scale globally with minimal resistance from other countries. As time goes by, I start to realize that China's great firewall may have had some visionary thinking behind it, and other countries may follow suit in future to enable their citizens to take part in the digital revolution.
I'm sorry, but yours is supremely paternalistic analysis borne of a believe that your fellow citizens are too stupid to have agency or act in their own interests.
And there is nothing visionary about China's great firewall since aristocrats have been trying to control the surfs since time immemorial by controlling communication. There is a reason antebellum slave owners did not want their slaves to learn how to read.
As much as the great firewall has been used for censorship, it has also been used to protect the flow of capital in the digital space. Countless jobs and wealth have been created in what are essentially clones of global tech giants built for the China market.
The issue is that the firewall protects the interests of a political regime instead of a capitalist one. It is a complicated topic but I see decentralized technologies as a more viable way of preserving digital freedom.
