This is true. However, online media is becoming more and more concentrated(and manipulated) as well. Facebook, Reddit, Tumblr, Google, and 4chan all make up a large chunk of our online media, and it should be apparent to most people at this point that each of those sites are either controlled by a company, country, or PR team. It wouldn't surprise me if we start seeing a decline in trust of online media in the future, too.

To point: fake news. Whether a particular undesirable-to-power news item is fake or not, the news can be labeled as fake.

The well is being poisoned as we speak.

In Europe, generally, 1) webmasters are usually responsible of the comments left in their webpages by their users, and 2) webmasters have to make clear what their names and addresses are.

Myself, sometimes I've thought of creating a forum or a community, only to be turned away when I think of that. Do you think 4chan would have ever existed if moot had had to put his real name and address there, and if he was legally responsible of what people published in 4chan? Impossible.

So all online communities will always be concentrated in the US, at least for the foreseeable future. :(

I don't believe the issue is US-vs-nonUS. I believe​the issue is internet "capital" concentration, which will emerge regardless of national origin. There is a networking effect that makes it difficult to start a successful platform, and those in power will eventually​ work to maintain or strengthen their power.

The problem in my view is that somebody still needs to do the original reporting. From what I can tell most internet sites just comment on what other sites are writing but they rarely add any new information to the mix. They just comment on existing information.

We still need organizations that can afford to undertake long investigations.

Pew keeps tabs on this.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/06/15/state-of-the...