In 2024, the internet will see the biggest reshuffling of power in 25 years, with a resurgent “human web” and regulators forcing tech giants to open up
The new year offers many of the promises of an online moment we haven't seen in a quarter-century … Everything is changing rapidly.
Rolling StoneAnil Dash
Context & Ripple Effects
This forecast extends a regulatory arc in which governments were already moving with unusual breadth to constrain technology companies’ power, as documented in the earlier global push to limit tech power. It frames 2024 as the point where that pressure could alter how internet gatekeepers operate rather than merely raise compliance costs.
It also follows coverage of a shift away from the web’s earlier laissez-faire posture toward greater institutional oversight. The important variable is whether mandated openness translates into practical choice for users and smaller services.
First-order effects
Large internet platforms face immediate pressure to make their services and rules more open, reducing their discretion over access and distribution.
Smaller online services and users could gain more routes to reach one another if opening requirements are implemented effectively; the article’s “human web” thesis depends on that execution.
Second-order effects
Platform operators will have to compete more on product quality and user trust where interoperability weakens exclusive control of audiences, a dynamic captured by the anticipated 2024 power reshuffle.
Compliance, integration, and governance become more central competitive capabilities for platforms and the developers that depend on them.
Third-order effects
If enforcement is sustained, internet competition may move from closed-platform control toward rules that limit gatekeeper leverage and make interoperability a more durable source of contestability.
The broader outcome remains uncertain: formal opening can redistribute power, but its effect depends on implementation details and whether users and services actually adopt the new options.
The trend: The internet is entering a strategic-institutional transition in which regulation and interoperability increasingly shape platform power.
I couldn't agree more with Anil Dash here: “There's not going to be some new killer app that displaces Google or Facebook or Twitter with a love-powered alternative. But that's because there shouldn't be. …
Best line: there should be more “... locally-grown, ethically-sourced, code-to-table alternatives to the factory-farmed junk food of the internet. And they should be weird.” Anil, it was good to get your perspective and long lens on this. 🙏🏻
Thank you for this. I love it and I agree with you that we are witnessing a fundamental shift in online power dynamics away from few digital monopolies and towards a fragmented, but so much more human and interesting internet. I'm so excited for it and think our digital future …
Worth your time to read, because although it pains me to admit, @anildash is usually right about these things and this is what you're going to see soon https://www.rollingstone.com/ ...
The collapse of Twitter, degradation of Google search, and the potential cracking of the app stores means Internet is more up for grabs than it has been in a quarter-century. https://www.rollingstone.com/ ...
Hey look, it's my first piece for Rolling Stone! (Thanks @noahshachtman ) And I meant every word — I believe we're seeing the renaissance of the weird, human internet. It couldn't come a moment too soon. https://www.rollingstone.com/ ...
“The human web, the one made by regular people, is resurgent. We are about to see the biggest reshuffling of power on the internet in 25 years, in a way that most of the internet's current users have never seen before” — Interesting piece from @anildash: The Internet Is About …
There's a lot to dislike about tech these days, but I really hope the pivot to a more human scale, even fragmented Internet as envisaged by this article by @anildash comes to pass (more than it already has, like this server). …
Where in @anildash raises the banners for a weirder web with wonderful references of practice from digital artists and activists @abundance @darius @netabomani #SFPC and more. — https://www.rollingstone.com/ ... In that spirit, if you're reading this, click on a person's page,…
Anil Dash ( @anildash ) has written in Rolling Stone about the coming renaissance of the weird internet in 2024 - good piece, with many links to people and projects to check out. — https://www.rollingstone.com/ ...
Always love a good @anildash essay like this one. https://www.rollingstone.com/ ... I'm not sure I fully believe it, but I like the optimism and the very human nature of the world Anil sees. And yeah, a weird, disaggregated, hodge podge future rather than the one big mall every…
Great piece by @anildash I agree with because we've been there and seen it all. Things are about to get weird, for the better... https://www-rollingstone-com.cdn.amppro ject.org/ ...
An energizing read about the internet and what's possible in 2024 and beyond from @anildash Perhaps a rallying cry for making the internet weird again? https://www.rollingstone.com/ ...
“The Internet Is About to Get Weird Again” has a lot in common with my Slow Web back in 2010. Normal @anildash has always been a defender of this vision of a more ethically sourced software world. 👏 https://www.rollingstone.com/ ...
I love a positive vision of the future: “But amidst it all, the human web, the one made by regular people, is resurgent. We are about to see the biggest reshuffling of power on the internet in 25 years, in a way that most of the internet's current users have never seen before.”
This is a great piece by @anildash. I hope he's right, because that “human web, the one made by regular people” is the web I fell in love with originally. https://www.rollingstone.com/ ...