Seems misguided. The real problem with the internet is that large corporations are allowed to have a presence on it. Google for example, should be completely banned from the internet.
- A Google-branded network separate from the internet
- Browsing the cache
- Since this hypothetical reality includes them being restricted from the internet, maybe they don’t need to link at all and they just give the information instead of the link to the page it’s on
We'd still have much of the same crap, but the ecosystem would be much more dynamic and interesting.
Imo the only split that makes sense is to split it down the middle: TWO companies which BOTH have the rights to Excel. Half the engineers in each.
Wow! Wouldn't that be great?! Like as in an international constitutional kind of ground rule saying any software must ultimately become source-available after X years and becomes public domain after Y years.
(Still plenty of wiggle room for monopolistic closed source, but at least it wouldn't be that way forever.)
Now, the problem with social networks is that they all are going for maximum market share. Which is the same as going for toxic and divisive communities. The collapse of Usenet in the Eternal September was just the opening salvo. It has happened to Facebook, it happened to Twitter, it has already happened to Threads (that place is worse than twitter now by far!), and it happened to many other less known things in between.
Any IRC channel above a certain size becomes toxic or useless or both, any Discord. Any group of people in the same room all screaming.
The solution isn't to ban big corporations. The solution is to build smaller "cells" with limited "immigration".