The Two Webs

Mapping the parallel networks

“The Two Webs” drawings depict the symmetry existing between the Internet monopolies present online and the monopolies of the tracking corporations. By a mirror effect, the Web has been duplicated giving rise to the tracking web. Both hemispheres are subject to the same dynamic. This leads to a distortion of the space caused by an extreme concentration of activity and data, with Internet giants digging into the surface of the Web and dragging down their slopes activities that could have remained independent.

The users are trapped in the cavity of the two webs. “There is one web users see in their browsers, but there is a much larger hidden web that is looking back at them” explains Timothy Libert. 90% of websites leak data to third-parties. Some of these leaks are enabled by codes hidden in free services such as Google Analytics and Facebook’s “Like” button; technologies massively used. These giant monopolies are vying with each other to pull the entire surface of the Internet down their respective web slopes. The most relevant example is Google, which dominates both web spaces: Google’s ditches join at the centre of the Web, revealing its predominant position online.

All the maps are based on data:

For web:

- The depth is defined by the number of daily visitors, the width of a gap is based on the number of incoming links (how many websites in the whole web link toward a given page) and the position of the websites is defined by the sites that were visited just before.

For the tracking web:

The size of the humps is based on the percentage of the web they track.