It's difficult to say, because so much of the structure of the internet was defined by US-based organizations in close collaboration with US corporations and the US government. Maybe the web wouldn't have become as popular, like maybe we'd all be using Gopher 2.0. I think the turn towards Facebook-style "social media" and platform homogenization definitely wasn't inevitable. One can imagine an alt tech history where mass adoption of personal computers was driven not by insane marketing hype but by actual human needs, at least in some parts of the world.
It's difficult to say, because so much of the structure of the internet was defined by US-based organizations in close collaboration with US corporations and the US government. Maybe the web wouldn't have become as popular, like maybe we'd all be using Gopher 2.0. I think the turn towards Facebook-style "social media" and platform homogenization definitely wasn't inevitable. One can imagine an alt tech history where mass adoption of personal computers was driven not by insane marketing hype but by actual human needs, at least in some parts of the world.