One of the many marvels of being an artist is using the ability to express oneself wholesomely and authentically without fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Because of this reason, art has historically had great influence on societies and cultures dating back to early anthropological days. As the modern invention of internet technologies continue to evolve, so to do opportunities for creating new forms of art. However, with great power comes great responsibility and it seems modern content creators are facing astounding hindrances to freely express themselves. As more of the global populace adapts to routine usage of internets, the expanse of censorship in countries across the globe has seemingly increased as well. Will blockchain technology alleviate these restrictions and promote a Renaissance of new art?

In recent years artists, activists, journalists, and musicians have gradually lost freedom to express themselves independently. During 2020, twenty-seven countries (over ¾ of the global populace) reported increased instances of various degrees of censorship. This upsurge in numbers is partially due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which obliged citizens to stay home during lockdown orders, however, there has also been an increase in universal daily internet use and traffic in recent years. This sudden, rapid development of technology and lifestyle has begun putting tension on the familiar ways of living that many humans were habituated to in the not-so-distant past. Before the advent of internet and worldwide web, life moved at a slower pace with less constant mental stimulation.

The significances of life before the web, was that information was much less effortlessly accessible, news traveled slower, and cultural beliefs and ideologies were much more exciting to intermingle. In the days before Twitter, Google, and YouTube, information was reduced to what was available on the television, newspapers, libraries, and word-of-mouth. It was meeker for local governments, businesses, and managements to deliver central messages en masse without much dispute. As humanity progressed into the age of information, more voices gained accessibility to speak out freely; sparking new insights and beliefs more quickly and suddenly. The consequence of this advancement was that the aforementioned entities now had to work harder to keep a central, common message. This “centralized” movement has led to more questions arising from general populations, thus promoting more ambitions to speak up for righteousness.

With the escalating censorship in today’s world, art and activism has slowly begun losing independent expression en lieu of what is acceptable in the eyes of the owners: corporations, mainstream medias, and governments. The arts have been a foundational aspect of many societies throughout history, and today there is a very real and legitimate debate of what art forms are healthy and which one’s are not. As the world continues to go deeper into this technological revolution, one of the newest forms of internet technology, blockchains, have begun to offer many new opportunities to the masses.

Blockchains are an improved internet technology built on the worldwide web. This new technology has opened up the door to web3.0 (a highly interactive and permission less user experience which allows users to apply blockchain technology to their typical web browsing involvements). Creating the bridge between smart devices such as smartphones, tablets, AI, and PCs, blockchains have entirely revolutionized the way data is tracked and stored. This revelation has led to many investors considering data to be the new “oil enterprise”. Taking into consideration the amount of money corporations like Facebook, Google, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) make every year from collecting and selling user data, it is no wonder it is highly sought after.

In many ways, blockchains can be implemented easily in a manner that everyday web2.0 users might be unaware. Take for example the invention of power steering in the first automobiles. This invention wasn’t drastic to the vehicle; however, it greatly improved the driving experience as well as applying newer safety protocols. The same sentiment is true for blockchains. By making all information open-sourced and available to its users to view, nothing can be concealed “on-chain”. This greatly increases the amount of decentralization accessible to the universal populace, while decreasing the potentials of dangerous censorship.

As blockchain technology has developed, new ideas have been created. One of the most unique additions are non-fungible tokens or NFTs. These datasets or “tokens” are used to generate on-chain assets that are inimitable, usually in the form of but not limited to: digital art, music, in-game tokens, or exclusive collectible items. For example, if a user were playing a game and they wanted to upgrade a character, the user would exchange cryptocurrency for an NFT. Another common example is a digital art creation such as memes or GIFs. It is easy to see why blockchains are quickly becoming a vital part in advancing the world of the internet into an ecosystem of investors, artists, activists, entrepreneurs, and inventors. As more and more individuals discover the cultural impact of blockchains, societies will be more apt to find user-friendly ways to implement this profound technology.

One of the most well-known and relatable art forms of humanity is music, and it too, has been impacted by the world’s progression from “old to new”. Music dates back to as far as the early China Dynasties, and Roman Empire. It has inevitably become one of the most honored, shared, and adored forms of art; and the same rings true in many of today’s cultures. In the late 19th century, soundwaves were able to be captured and recorded for the first time, and soon after the infamous Billboard advertising began recognizing commonly popular music and songs. Shortly after, the greatly treasured tech of vinyl records was revealed and the atmosphere immersing the sounds of music were forever changed.

By the 1950’s there were five big musical corporations: Colombia, RCA, Decca, Capitol, and Mercury. Initially, these record companies would offer contracts to talented artists of whom they believed would be successful. These corporations would then make royalties off the bands that signed with them. The more often a band played on the radio and sold records, the more the record labels would earn. The bands at the time would be accountable for their own merchandising, publishing, endorsements, and touring. Having this much responsibility would often times become a distraction preventing the musicians studio time. Often times, teams of managers and publishers were hired to help the bands promotion. In the early 2000’s a new type of contract was introduced to the market. These contracts were known as 360 Deals and they allowed the artist to accept an advance payment from the record label, who in return handled all aspects of the artists life except creating music.

There are a few benefits of 360 deals such as: access to noteworthy collaborations, less interferences from self-promotion, and admittance to help further career development quicker. These deals became much less risky for the record companies as compared to the traditional contracts, and consequently, became offered more commonly. In many instances, the artists ended up receiving less income this way as compared to older contracts; in some instances, even losing “creative control”. Another commonly used method by musicians is to promote themselves with a Sync license. This licensure allows artists to match music to motion pictures such as: movies, TV shows, commercials, video games, etc. The biggest advantage to this exposure is that the music doesn’t have to be a “hit song” as much as synchronize with the scene of the visual graphics. For example, if there was a death in a motion picture, the artist would make a heavy, encumbering sounding song that coordinates with the scene to deliver the anticipated effect, in this instance: bereavement and sadness. This type of exposure allows lesser-known artists to get a chance to make income, however, it is often not as desirable as contracts from a record deal.

In today’s musical world, record labels are looking to make money with the lowest risk possible and this has more-or-less nullified the creative aspect of musicianship for the surefire way to maintain business as usual. This kind of atmosphere has made it next to impossible for lesser-known musicians to find introductions as independent artists. Streaming services like Spotify offer non-signed artists an opportunity to promote themselves, though, these services also collect money from the artists similarly to other deals mentioned. On many occasions, musicians and artists alike rely on social media platforms to promote their work, however, lately even these platforms seem to be censoring what gets advertised and what does not.

Nowadays, it isn’t uncommon to turn to popular social media platforms to voice one’s opinions, ideas, thoughts, or expressions. With a growing populace, these sites required a way to safeguard themselves from the liabilities of user interaction. Section 230 is a United States legislative law that does just that. Section 230 allows users to post freely and prohibits accountability of the host of the platform i.e., if a user of Twitter or Facebook posts controversial material, then the site is not responsible for the content. However, these platforms do retain the rights to remove content that is deemed as terroristic or severe cases of harassment. This law was enacted to protect big Tech companies from receiving unwarranted legal action, yet it seems there is a gray-area as to what content is considered to be removed versus what is acceptable. For this reason, it has created skepticism amongst users to understand what is and what isn’t acceptable because a clear line cannot be drawn without violating the First Amendment rights.

Similar to the music industry, social media and web services are pre-dominantly owned by a few corporations: Google, Apple, and Amazon Web Services. These businesses have the authority to approve or deny most smaller companies from being granted or restricted access of their product. A recently notable occurrence of a company being de-platformed from AWS is the social media start-up, Parler. Amazon Web Services holds the rights to remove any company from their services without notice if their rules are not abided. Yet again, this creates a gray-area for what is acceptable and what is not acceptable as AWS holds the ultimate saying if their guidelines were violated or not. As of 2019, AWS owns nearly half of the world’s cloud infrastructure. As the world turns to integrate 5G services and more cloud-based programming, many businesses are arising their own skepticism towards the amount of control these three companies have over the internet industry.

Another social media platform, TikTok, has received large amounts of scrutiny as well. TikTok’s rules and guidelines on censorship are seemingly unclear and nonspecific. In China, any mentions of Tiananmen Square, Tibetan independence or the religious group Falun Gong are to be removed by local state moderators. Furthermore, TikTok invested $1B USD in Facebook advertisements and was fined $5.7M by the FTC for collecting unjustified data from underage children without parental consent. Needless to say, the space of social media has large portions of non-conforming universality in an ecosystem that is rapidly expanding. It is imperative to have internet safety, and it is equally as important to have freedoms to express oneself on the web. These accumulative actions have left many artists, activists, journalists, and individuals in a mindset of “walking on eggshells” to avoid removal of their content, yet again creating a problem of independent expression and individualism.

Throughout history, art has always been an important catalyst to culture. In many instances, activists started protests against unjust ways of living and often times the result was a better outcome for the greater good of humanity. Societies look for art to find creative ways for articulating oneself, find inspiration, correlate with another, and learn abstract ideas. When the aspect of expression in culture gets censored or removed, the impact is observed. Without freedom to verbalize oneself, it condenses opportunities for progress and profound identifications.

A world of extreme censorship could be riddled in idiosyncrasies; dull, boring, and relatively meaningless. There needs to be middle ground discovered between governments, big corporations, and social media outlets to allow freedom of expression and individuality without creating or promoting mass expanses of terror and civil unrest. The answer very well could be within the technology of internet (web3.0) and blockchains. With numerous blockchain platforms producing governance systems for users to vote upon and grow in, it is a viable option for a middle ground. Many of these blockchains offer on-chain currencies (cryptocurrency) that allow users to reward each other, stake their tokens and accumulate APY, or even sell off for traditional currencies to pay for bills in the everyday world. In the midst of one the greatest revolutions known to humanity, what is averting new ideologies and creative solutions from being realized to traditional lifestyles that many of us have developed?

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