How tech monopolies changed the web
Adam Ruins Everything's Adam Conover explains CollegeHumor's recent collapse and how tech monopolies have hindered the discovery of independent creators.
The internet ruined everything
Adam Conover of TruTV’s Adam Ruins Everything got his start on the sketch comedy site CollegeHumor. For 2 decades, CollegeHumor was a launchpad for new voices in comedy — until the changing digital media landscape made its existence increasingly difficult.
What's changed with the media landscape is Facebook and also YouTube
The vision of the internet that we were sold in the late 90s, early 2000s was a fantasy, right? I believed it as much as anybody. "Hey, on the internet, no one knows your dog, right? Anybody can be anything. You can just start making content and people will watch it, you know, meritocracy, the gatekeepers are gone, etc., etc." And we had that for a good, what, 10 years or so, right, until all the large tech companies sprung up that started saying, "Hey, no, we're going to own this Wild West."
With the growth of tech monopolies, it’s become difficult for independent creators to compete
It's essentially been, "Hey, it was the Wild West, it was fun for a while," and then the railroad came through. Right? It's like in any Wild West movie, that's when the dream dies. And the railroad in this case is Facebook, YouTube, Amazon, Twitter, Twitch, all these sites, right, that have so much power that we are not able to compete with them. If those sites are not allowing competitors to enter the marketplace, because they're refusing to show them in their newsfeed, that is enforceable behavior, enforceable bad behavior that we can prevent, with strenuous antitrust enforcement. So that's what needs to happen. I would say it's unlikely to happen in the current administration. However, it was also unlikely to happen in the previous administration. Obama's Justice Department was also asleep at the wheel on these issues. So, I think we need to see a sea change in how this sort of bad behavior is treated. And we need the Justice Department to start enforcing our antitrust laws.
Brut.
44 comments
James K.
02/28/2020 23:37Aww somebody’s funding got pulled because their popularity went down because they weren’t good. How is this other people’s fault?
Aaron V.
02/26/2020 07:29also college humor sucks now but yeag
David C.
02/26/2020 06:41Adam is what helped kill college humor with some of the latest adam ruins everything
Alfredo P.
02/26/2020 05:48Adam ruins college humor....🤣🤣🤣🤣
Addrian D.
02/25/2020 19:32Thankyou, lots of haters on here but you know to ignore it!
Sean H.
02/25/2020 10:24Jesus christ i cant stand this guy
Ryan F.
02/24/2020 20:11Adam Conover: Am I out of touch? No, it’s the children who are wrong.
Dave M.
02/23/2020 06:47lmao, so we lost a site that produced two SNL writers and the people behind sam bee and john oliver? think we're gonna be just fine... maybe what happened is the site wasn't actually all that funny?
Tim B.
02/20/2020 20:27Adam sucks at everything
Daniel F.
02/19/2020 13:20Maybe if your content didn't suck, you'd have a bigger following.
Ollie G.
02/18/2020 17:43As I watch this on Facebook lmao
Chuck T.
02/16/2020 02:11If you thought for one single second that corporate America wasn't going to get their hands on something designed SOLELY for scientists to share information across the globe, you're crazy
Audey N.
02/15/2020 18:09You spread just as much propaganda as anybody with your show . So get off your high horse 🐎
Evon D.
02/13/2020 05:40It is just too much whining from the same people, ...your people Adam.....your people....
Justin R.
02/12/2020 04:12You don’t have to use Facebook. It’s voluntary. If Facebook didn’t exist college humor would have never had any traction. Stop crying.
Ronin M.
02/11/2020 21:14Adam does ruin everything...and that means actual reality and anything that is funny. He basically speed word salad until you either just accept his point out of attrition or just walk away.
R.J. R.
02/10/2020 00:40This guy is the most insufferable [email protected] on the planet.
Brandon R.
02/10/2020 00:08Boohoo liberals complaining about what they were fighting for, now living in what they wanted and now complaining about it even more. Your show is a huge failure due to your inconsistency of actual facts. Lay in the bed you made ya douchbag!
James B.
02/07/2020 20:29It collapsed because it sucked
Dmitry J.
02/07/2020 13:14Not only was it propaganda, it was often just wrong, and stating opinions as fact. 🤦🏾♂️ ESPECIALLY Adam.