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It's an interesting point, but I think you've stretched it a little thin. Taking one of your examples, I don't think anyone would ever say "it's reasonable to treat the web as interchangeable with Facebook". Sure, for some people Facebook is all they use the web for - but that's definitely not true for everyone. And the web doesn't depend on Facebook existing either. When Facebook dies, the web will be just fine.

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Certainly Facebook alone, but that's why I included the "et al". For most of the world, "the internet" is interchangeable with "the few big platforms I regularly use". It's not technically accurate, but I don't begrudge them the usage because that is their internet.

In your analogy, "Facebook et al" seems equivalent to "Binance et al". And OP asked about journalists too. Imagine if CNBC ran an article titled "Facebook fined for privacy violations - is this the end of the internet?" We'd all have a field day. I don't begrudge your grandma for not knowing the difference. But a journalist or HN commenter is expected to know. I wish we held crypto discourse to that same standard of being at least minimally informed.

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