1. Introduction: The Convenience Trap

The web was born as a decentralized network, an open and free space where individuals could express themselves, communicate, and share ideas without needing the permission or oversight of a central authority. In its early days, it represented a digital commons—a place where anyone could build a website, craft content, and participate in the global conversation.

Today, however, the web looks very different. The landscape has been enclosed by corporate platforms that control vast ecosystems and dominate user experiences. The internet has become centralized, fragmented into a handful of massive social networks, media platforms, and services where users no longer own or control their data, content, or even identities. People have been funneled into closed systems that prioritize convenience over freedom, commoditizing their attention and personal information in the process.

But the real problem lies not just with these corporations; it’s with us, the users, who have willingly traded freedom for convenience. We’ve clicked “accept” on terms we haven’t read. We’ve created Instagram accounts instead of personal websites. We’ve exchanged our autonomy for the ease of ready-made, pre-packaged services that lock us into their ecosystems. This manifesto calls for a deep, systemic change—a movement away from the traps of convenience and centralized control toward an internet that is once again owned and controlled by individuals.

2. The Problem: Convenience, Corporations, and Centralization

It’s easy to place all the blame on the giant corporations that dominate the web—Facebook (Meta), Google, Amazon, and their counterparts—but the real cancer of the modern internet goes deeper than just the presence of a few big websites. The problem is structural: entire toolkits, ecosystems, and digital infrastructures are built around these corporations, making it virtually impossible for indie projects and alternatives to compete. These companies don’t just own platforms; they own the frameworks, the tools, the standards, and even the browsers that determine how the web operates.

Consider Chromium, the engine behind Google Chrome, which is now the foundation for the vast majority of web browsers, giving Google control not only over its browser but over much of the web experience itself. Or take Facebook, which doesn’t just dominate social media but has created an entire ecosystem of services, APIs, and development tools that lock developers and users alike into its orbit. The convenience of these platforms is seductive, and many users, developers, and companies choose the path of least resistance—plugging into these pre-built ecosystems rather than building their own.

But we must recognize the consequences of this. We are trading autonomy for ease. We are feeding a system that is designed to commodify our attention, our data, and our creativity. We are giving up the web.

3. The IndieWeb Solution: A Return to Autonomy

The IndieWeb movement represents a radical return to the web’s original promise—a decentralized, user-owned, and user-controlled internet. At its core, the IndieWeb is about empowerment—about giving individuals the tools, knowledge, and frameworks to build their own spaces on the web without relying on corporate intermediaries. It’s about reclaiming the autonomy that we’ve lost in the age of platforms.

Key to this movement is the idea that every individual should own their data, their content, and their identity online. This isn’t just a matter of control over personal information (though that’s important too); it’s about reclaiming creative and expressive freedom. It’s about making sure that the web doesn’t belong to a few corporations but to the billions of individuals who use it every day.

The IndieWeb isn’t just a call for decentralization; it’s a call to action for users and developers to take back the tools of creation, to reject the pre-built ecosystems of big tech, and to build something new—something truly independent.

4. The Barriers: Why People Choose Convenience

However, if the IndieWeb is to succeed, we must confront a difficult truth: most people won’t willingly leave the convenient platforms they’ve grown accustomed to. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok are popular not just because of their corporate backing, but because they are easy. They work out-of-the-box. They offer seamless integration across devices, simple user interfaces, and massive built-in audiences. For the average user, convenience trumps everything else.

This convenience, though, is the web’s ultimate enemy. It’s why people accept endless surveillance, manipulation, and control in exchange for a service that simply works. But the IndieWeb’s goal is not to force users to reject convenience; rather, it is to build systems that can compete with the user experience of big platforms, while still retaining autonomy and control. To do this, we must lower the barrier to entry for users and developers alike. Tools, platforms, and systems in the IndieWeb ecosystem must be as simple to use as the corporate alternatives, if not simpler.

5. Building the IndieWeb Ecosystem: Decentralized, User-Centric, Ethical

To break the stranglehold of big tech, we need to build an ecosystem that is more compelling than the corporate web. This means developing tools that not only offer independence but are also genuinely easy to use. It means creating decentralized networks that don’t sacrifice user experience for control. And most of all, it means fostering a community that is not just about technology, but about ethics, values, and the long-term future of the web.

5.1 Decentralized Identity and Content Ownership

The foundation of the IndieWeb is decentralized identity and content ownership. Every user should control their own domain—whether that’s a personal website, blog, or another space on the web. This domain should be the single source of truth for their online presence. Instead of relying on platforms like Twitter or Facebook to host their content, users should own and control everything they create.

Web technologies like Webmentions, Microformats, and ActivityPub make it possible to decentralize social interactions as well. Users can post content on their own site and still interact with others across the web, without needing a centralized platform to mediate the interaction. This means we can build social networks without giving control over our identities or data to third parties.

5.2 Ethical Design and Development

Building a decentralized web is not just a technical challenge; it’s an ethical one. We must ensure that the systems and tools we create don’t replicate the problems of the corporate web. Surveillance, data exploitation, and algorithmic manipulation must be rejected outright. Instead, IndieWeb tools should be designed with user privacy, transparency, and consent at their core.

At the same time, we need to avoid creating overly complex systems that make participation in the IndieWeb exclusive or difficult. Simplicity and accessibility are key. The goal is to empower everyone—not just developers, but everyday users—to build and control their own web presence.

5.3 A New Browser War: Ending Chromium’s Monopoly

One of the key battlegrounds in the fight for a decentralized web will be the browser. As it stands, Google’s Chromium project underpins a vast majority of web browsers, including Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Opera, and others. This creates a monoculture where one company essentially sets the standards for how the web operates.

But there are new challengers on the horizon. Projects like the Ladybird browser aim to break the Chromium monopoly and bring diversity back to web standards. The success of these projects will be crucial in ensuring that the web remains an open, flexible, and user-controlled space, rather than a corporate-controlled silo.

6. A Call to Action: Building the Future We Want

The web is not doomed to remain a space dominated by corporate giants. The IndieWeb offers an alternative vision—one where individuals own their content, control their data, and shape their own digital experiences. But realizing this vision will require action on multiple fronts.

• For users, it means making the conscious choice to leave behind the convenience of corporate platforms in favor of independence and freedom.
• For developers, it means building tools that prioritize user control, simplicity, and ethical design.
• For communities, it means fostering a culture that values autonomy, collaboration, and openness, while resisting the seductive pull of corporate ecosystems.

The IndieWeb is not just a technical movement; it is a cultural and ethical one. We are fighting not just for a different kind of web, but for a different kind of relationship with technology—one that puts people first, not profits. This manifesto is a call to those who believe that the web can be more than a marketplace for attention, data, and manipulation. It can be a space for human connection, creativity, and freedom. But only if we make it so.

7. Conclusion: The Future is Ours to Build

The choice before us is clear. We can continue down the path of convenience, ceding control of our digital lives to a handful of powerful corporations, or we can take the harder, but far more rewarding, path toward independence. The IndieWeb is not about rejecting all technology or abandoning progress; it is about ensuring that the technology we build serves us—not the other way around.

If we want to reclaim the web, we must act now. We must reject convenience as an excuse for corporate control. We must build the tools, systems, and communities that will make the web a truly decentralized, user-owned space once again. The future of the web is in our hands. Let’s build it together.