A piece in the New York Times asserts that the internet is so flawed and clogged with viruses that the only solution is to scrap it and start over – suggesting a "gated community" where users give up their anonymity and freedom in return for "safety".
Hmmm... sounds like the same version of the internet our rulers have in mind.
You see, the current Internet is too hard to control. Just about anyone can get on and say anything. There is no class structure, no censorship, the options for extracting money from users are limited and getting a cohesive message across to everyone who uses it is downright impossible.
What is needed is a tightly regulated Internet where only those with enough wealth are able to control what is being said and payment is extracted in an easy and orderly fashion. An Internet in which all information is available to the right people who can use it to control the unruly mob and masses of the underclasses.
In the past couple centuries the ruling elites have been lax in their duties and the lower classes have risen, creating a "middle class" and fostering the wrongheaded idea that every man is equal. With a new Internet, together with other controlled mass media, such wrong ideas can be properly quashed.