Rumbling away throughout 2024 was EU threats to take action against Twitter/X for abandoning fact-checking. The EU's Digital Services Act (DSA) is clear on its requirements - so that conflict will escalate. If X won't change, presumably ultimately it will be banned from the EU.
Meta have decided they'd rather keep EU market access. Today they announced the removal of fact-checking, but only for Americans. Europeans can still benefit from the higher standards the Digital Services Act guarantees.
The next 10 years will see the power of mis/disinformation accelerate with AI. Meta itself seems to be embracing this trend by purposefully integrating fake AI profiles into its networks. From now on it looks like the main battle-ground to deal with this is going to be the EU.
Also… don’t call this the internet.
Facebook and Twitter are not the internet, they are Facebook and Twitter. It’s tragic they have become the de facto internet for so many, but still.
I think the point they’re trying to make is that these two large sites are just the start. Others will follow suit to the point where eventually most sites across the entire internet will be in this bifurcated situation. We’re seeing similar things with things like cookies, ads, and age verification.
Fair point, and probably true.
That said, for much of the 'old' internet... it doesn't matter. Spaces were mostly user moderated niches, and they weren't monetizing their users to the point where tracking regulation is enough of an issue to bifuricate.