We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads [video]

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

How the 2017 talk looks in 2025

  • Many note the talk feels prophetic: we’re already “living in the dystopia.”
  • Visiting the TED page itself now requires cookie consent, ships multiple trackers, and often shows pre‑roll ads, reinforcing the talk’s message.

Ads vs. users: an escalating arms race

  • Heavy use of adblockers (uBlock Origin, Pi‑hole, AdGuard, NextDNS, Safari blockers, Brave, Firefox mobile) is widespread; some route traffic via regions with fewer ads.
  • For YouTube specifically, people rely on Premium, specialized extensions (SponsorBlock, DeArrow, UnTrap, Enhancer) and cosmetic filters to strip recommendations, shorts, and in‑video sponsorships.
  • Platforms counter with technical measures: Manifest V3 limits extension power; Safari’s content-blocking API is less flexible; Reddit randomizes telemetry endpoints; YouTube aggressively bypasses blockers.

Ethics of adblocking and “free” services

  • One faction calls adblocking cheating and free‑riding: consuming content while blocking its revenue, which they argue drives ever more intrusive ads.
  • Others reply that:
    • Bandwidth, attention, and device security belong to the user.
    • Publishing on the open web does not entitle anyone to dictate how content is consumed.
    • Ads became abusive first (tracking, fraud, scams), making defensive tools legitimate self‑protection.
  • Some see paying directly (e.g., ad‑free tiers) as ethically preferable; others cancel subscriptions that reintroduce ads anyway.

Deeper harm: ad-funded structures and content

  • Several argue that focusing on “just use an adblocker” misses the core issue: the entire web’s architecture, incentives, and content are distorted by ad economics.
  • Examples:
    • News headlines and layouts optimized for clickbait rather than clarity.
    • Social media algorithms steering users into outrage and extremism to maximize engagement.
    • Content itself shaped by what is monetizable, not what is valuable.
  • This especially hurts vulnerable users (e.g., visually impaired people overwhelmed by ad‑ridden lyric sites even with blockers).

Regulation, capitalism, and systemic fixes

  • Some see better government regulation (GDPR‑style limits on data collection, rules around algorithmic amplification, ad bans in public spaces) as the only realistic lever.
  • Others worry about censorship, speech issues, and “economic tyranny” under capitalism, debating whether advertising could be meaningfully curbed without monopolistic or authoritarian outcomes.
  • Marxist analysis appears: ads as part of late‑stage capitalism’s zero‑sum fight for attention, with collapse or significant restructuring predicted by some.

Proposed futures and coping strategies

  • Ideas include:
    • Local, user‑controlled “reasoning AIs” to filter/manipulate incoming content in the user’s interest.
    • Re‑peering the internet (everyone gets a domain/IP) to reduce platform centralization.
    • Crypto/micropayment or “get paid to watch ads” schemes—met with skepticism about fraud and Sybil attacks.
  • Others simply retreat: moving workflows into the terminal, avoiding major social platforms, or limiting web use to a small set of trusted sites.