Bernstein Identifies Blockchain as a Solution to Internet Content Censorship

The immutability offered by blockchain technology could serve as a tool to prevent content censorship, particularly in the emerging era of AI. This is according to a report by Bernstein, as cited by The Block.

Analysts Gautam Chhugani, Mahika Sapra, and Sanskar Chindaliya highlighted recent events:

• Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg admitted that the platform complied with U.S. government demands in 2021 to filter posts related to the COVID-19 pandemic;
• Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was detained in France, partly accused of the messenger’s reluctance to moderate content;
• the Brazilian government moved to ban X in the country for refusing to remove alleged misinformation.

The experts noted that traditional American media are ramping up fact-checking measures ahead of the presidential elections. X is attempting to moderate posts using user notes, which allows it to avoid deleting posts or blocking accounts by adding warning context.

Telegram’s approach to censorship is much more radical, the analysts acknowledged. The platform does not employ end-to-end encryption but relies on decentralized storage across multiple jurisdictions, making data extraction difficult. The messenger actively resists content moderation out of concern for suppressing political views and freedom of speech, Bernstein specialists emphasized.

In their view, this raises several important questions such as:

• what constitutes truth and who decides it;
• whether governments should determine it and pressure media to censor messages or create loopholes for monitoring;
• how AI-generated content should be moderated and whether the approach should differ from human publications.

The analysts noted that decentralized social networks like Farcaster or Lens have not gained significant user attention. However, distributed ledger technology enables the creation of a tokenized market for any event, providing a unique way to convey truth with a “personal stake,” they assert.

One example they cited is the prediction platform Polymarket, based on Polygon. If users believe traditional electoral polls regarding U.S. elections are biased, they can always refer to the blockchain platform’s odds, Chhugani, Sapra, and Chindaliya noted.

Regarding the challenge of increasing volumes of AI-generated content, the analysts suggested that advancements in zero-knowledge proofs could aid in its labeling. This would allow differentiation from messages by real people.

“As AI provides abundance, productivity, and creativity, blockchain balances them by striving for truth, scarcity, and decentralization of power,” stated Bernstein experts.

Back in June, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin described distributed ledger technology as a shield against authoritarian regimes.