How the Internet Got Closed and How We Open It Again

Time flies. I think most of us can agree on that. I am from the generation (now 35 years old) that has seen the transition from a world without pc/internet, to where we are now, and where we are heading. I think our generation is lucky, that we have seen both sides. Young enough to become very fluent in anything technology and internet, old enough to know a world before all of that.

We sometimes forget where we came from and we often assume that everything now is better than before. I agree with that for the most part, especially if you zoom out and look at life in general, but not for everything. One is the state of the internet. Let me explain to you why.

The Internet Was Meant to Connect

To understand where we came from, it helps to understand what the internet actually is.

The internet is not a single website or app. It’s a set of protocols, open rules, that let computers talk to each other. It’s like a massive postal system:
• Every device has an address (called an IP address).
• Messages are sent in small packets.
• And just like mail, it doesn’t matter what country or computer you’re in, if you follow the rules, the message gets delivered.

As a concrete example, here’s what happens when you visit a website:

Let’s say you type a URL like www.funsjacobs.com into your browser. Here’s what happens in a matter of milliseconds:

1. Your browser asks the Domain Name System (DNS): “Where is this website located?” DNS is like the phonebook of the internet, it translates the name into a numeric IP address.

2. It finds the server that hosts that site, basically a computer somewhere in the world that stores the website’s content.

3. Your browser sends a request to that server: “Can you send me the homepage?”

4. The server responds with the HTML, CSS, images, and code that make up the page.

5. Your browser assembles it and displays it on your screen.

This entire flow is powered by open protocols like:
• HTTP – for transferring webpages,
• TCP/IP – the underlying plumbing that moves data between devices,
• and DNS – the system that turns human-readable names (like funsjacobs.com) into machine-friendly addresses.

These protocols work like public infrastructure: No single company owns them. No one needs to approve your website. That was the point.

You don’t ask permission to put up a sign on the internet. You just follow the rules of the road and your content appears.

Why Trust in the Rules Mattered

When you’re building something new, especially something risky, you need to trust the ground you’re building on. That’s what the early internet offered.

There was a shared understanding: the protocols were open, the access was equal, and the rules didn’t change halfway through the game. If you built a website or launched a tool, you knew that it would work tomorrow the same way it worked today. You didn’t have to worry about someone stepping in to change the rules or suddenly charging you to keep going.

That kind of stability created the perfect conditions for innovation. It’s why some of the world’s biggest internet companies could start as side projects or experiments. A search engine built in a dorm room. An online bookstore run from a garage. A global encyclopedia edited by volunteers. All of that was possible because the internet felt like neutral territory. A level playing field. No one could tilt the table.

Take WordPress as another great example. It started in 2003 as a simple blogging tool, built by a college student who wanted a better way to publish online. It used open web standards. It was free to download, free to modify, and could be hosted anywhere. Because of that openness, thousands of developers around the world started contributing to it. Today, WordPress powers more than 40 percent of all websites on the internet.

It didn’t need permission from a platform. It didn’t rely on a single company’s rules. It grew because the internet allowed anyone to build something useful and trust that it wouldn’t be taken away.

Chris Dixon (in his book: Read, Write, Own) describes it well. In the early days, the internet was like a public road. Everyone could use it. Everyone understood the rules. No one could suddenly decide to change the direction of traffic, charge a toll, or block certain cars from entering. It was neutral ground. A shared foundation.

And just like physical infrastructure enables economies to grow, roads, bridges, power grids, the open internet enabled a new kind of economy to emerge. One built not on permission, but on possibility.

When the Road Got Gates

But that trust didn’t last forever.. As more people came online and the web matured, a new generation of companies started to build not just on the internet, but on top of it.

At first, they made things easier. Much easier.

You no longer had to mess with FTP, HTML, or command lines (I remember those days 🤣) . You could publish a blog post with a single click. Send a newsletter. Host a video. Launch a business. Everything that once took hours of setup and tinkering could now be done in minutes.

And of course, people flocked to that. Most users aren’t thinking about protocols or decentralization. They just want things to work. Fast. Seamlessly. Without friction. It was the natural thing to do. Choose the smoothest path. And over time, the smooth path became the default.

But there’s always a trade-off: Ease of use came with invisible dependencies. And those dependencies gave a handful of companies immense power.

You can still host your own website on your own server. Technically, nothing’s stopping you. But almost nobody does. Because platforms like Shopify, Squarespace, or Substack make it ten times easier.

The result? A small number of platforms now control the majority of online activity. And when control consolidates, incentives shift. You go from empowering builders, to optimizing for shareholders.

• Gmail owns email. Over 75% of Americans use it and Google decides what lands in your inbox.

• AWS & Azure own the cloud. One outage takes half the internet with it.

• Google owns search. 89.5% of global queries go through one algorithm.

• Amazon owns online retail. Four in ten dollars spent online in the US go to them.

• Facebook owns attention. Three billion users scroll on its terms.

• Cloudflare owns delivery. It sits between users and 20% of the web.

• WhatsApp owns private messaging. Over 2.7 billion users rely on it but one company controls the pipes.

An example that I always use is social media following. People have created billion dollar businesses via their social media accounts, but are also completely reliant on it. The danger of that I have seen close and personal. The first time when we found out that my best friend’s Twitter account was gone, disappeared, including his 600k followers or so. At a time he wanted to use it again because of a potential benefit to him, he noticed it was all gone.. Insane.

Second time was my own experience. My LinkedIn page has always been a great source to connect with new people, find new clients, build relationships. Until LinkedIn changed it’s algorithm all of a sudden (aka the rules of the platform) and now, although I have almost 9000 followers there, some of my post get 1 or 2 likes.. Frustrating. My response to that was starting this newsletter, as I discussed in edition-1, why? Because it gave me a way to discuss the things I want to discuss and build a following of email addresses I can always take away with me to another platform if I want to. I am NOT reliant on Beehiiv to reach all of you.

The App Store: A Beautiful Prison

When the iPhone launched in 2007, it changed everything. Not just because it was a phone, but because it became the gateway to the modern mobile web.

In 2008, Apple introduced the App Store. It seemed like a gift: a centralized place where anyone could distribute their software to millions of users. Instant reach. Trusted payments. Clear design guidelines. But there was a catch.

To access that audience, developers had to play by Apple’s rules. And Apple could change those rules whenever it wanted.

Apps could be rejected for vague reasons. Updates could be delayed or blocked. Apple took a 30% cut of any digital revenue and prohibited developers from telling users they could subscribe or buy elsewhere.

Case 1: Basecamp vs. Apple – The HEY Saga

In 2020, Basecamp launched HEY, a privacy‑first email app (which is the reason I can use my awesome email address [email protected] 😉). Apple blocked critical updates unless HEY added an in‑app purchase option that handed Apple a 30% cut. Basecamp refused. They waited, believing Apple would relent, after all, HEY complied with all guidelines.

After weeks of hold‑ups, Apple finally approved the update in June 2024, with zero explanation. Probably they relented because of the public backlash caused by Basecamp’s well known and influential founders.

Control over app updates is control over your business. Apple decides if, and when, you stay live.

Case 2: Epic Games vs. Apple – A Legal Turning Point

Epic Games refused to continue paying Apple’s 30% fee on Fortnite transactions. In August 2020, they implemented direct billing and got booted from the App Store and sued.

The courtroom battle dragged on, but in April 2025, Judge Rogers declared Apple willfully violated a 2021 injunction, specifically by imposing a 27% fee on third‑party purchases and blocking links to alt‑payment methods. Fortnite finally returned to iOS later that month, free to redirect users to alternative payment methods. 

Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic, described the fight as a stand for digital freedom, noting it cost the company over $1 billion but has real impact for all developers. 

What changed: Developers can now link to alternative payment systems, without Apple’s 30% commission and Fortnite is back on iOS.

Epic started their fight with Apple with launching the above awesome parody Fortnite styled video of Apple’s legendary 1984 commercial 🤣.

These are central examples of what happens when platform supremacy replaces protocol neutrality.

• Basecamp launched an app that met every rule and still got blocked.
• Epic spent years and billions and won the right to offer choice on iPhones.

Apple still controls iOS distribution but this time, developers won back a piece of control. These two companies had the power and funds to fight the giant, they also did it on behalf of all the others who can’t. We should definitely thank them for that.

Back to the Open Road

Let’s bring Chris Dixon’s metaphor home.

The open internet was a public road. Everyone could drive on it. Everyone knew the rules. No one could block your car or add a toll overnight.

What we’ve ended up with is something different. Private roads. Operated by megacorporations. They decide who drives, what direction you go, and how much you pay. You can build a business next to the road, until they decide to build a competing one, charge toll to enter your road or bulldoze yours entirely.

That environment kills innovation. Because when builders can’t trust the ground beneath them, they stop building.

That’s why the story of the internet can’t end here.

Why Blockchain Matters

This is where blockchain enters as an architectural reset. Blockchain is not just about tokens or trading. At its core, it’s a new layer of open infrastructure. A way to rebuild the internet with permissionless access, transparent rules, and ownership baked in.

You don’t need a platform’s approval to launch something. You deploy a smart contract. It runs. No middlemen. No gatekeepers. No algorithmic opacity.

It brings the trust of protocols back to the digital economy.

Projects like Ethereum, Lens, Farcaster, and ENS are showing what this looks like in practice:
• Social networks where you own your graph and your audience.
• Domain names that can’t be revoked.
• Money and identity systems that don’t rely on a single company or server.

It won’t happen overnight. And it won’t be perfect.

But it brings us closer to what the internet was always meant to be: Open, interoperable, and free to build on.

So the question, and responsibility, goes back to you. Do you want an open or a closed internet? It’s really up to us and we have to take that responsibility to do better.

Open Internet
Closed Internet
Open Internet?

We decide ❤️ 

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^{Who am I and why you should be here:}

^{Over the years, I’ve navigated industries like advertising, music, sports, and gaming, always chasing what’s next and figuring out how to make it work for brands, businesses, and myself. From strategizing for global companies to experimenting with the latest tech, I’ve been on a constant journey of learning and sharing.}

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