You may think of it as
something that helps you
communicate with your friends,
laugh at memes,
and binge-watch your favorite TV shows.
Others might think of it
as a way to make money,
perform illegal activities,
and maybe even spread propaganda.
Regardless of how you use it,
the internet is
arguably the most
powerful tool in the world.
So what would happen if you controlled it?
There are over 5 billion Google searches
every single day.
Six thousand tweets
are thrown out every second,
and billions of hours
of videos are watched on YouTube
and Facebook each day.
If I were to control the internet,
maybe I'd make everybody watch WHAT IF all the time
and become a billionaire.
MUAHAHAHAH!
But before we devise that diabolical plan,
how would you even manage to control
such a powerful tool?
Well, there actually is a way
to control the internet,
sort of.
Spread across the world,
14 people hold metal keys that
control the internet.
All these keys are used
to protect the internet's domain name system.
This is what allows us to type in
google.com instead of
a series of numbers, like 24.642.83.
The reason why these 14 people
are spread out all around the world
is because if someone managed
to get ahold of all 14 keys,
they could theoretically
control the entire internet.
So what would happen
if we hypothetically gave you
the keys to the internet?
Well, it's safe to say that you'd be a digital god.
People use the internet for everything nowadays.
They talk with their friends,
do their jobs, watch TV, so much more.
With you being able to control the internet,
you could have serious control
over people's daily lives.
Maybe you'd use these new powers for evil,
and shut down an entire eCommerce company
by blocking its IP address.
Or maybe you'd show everyone your favorite WHAT IF video you saw from that week.
I like that idea.
No matter what you do,
there's a good chance you'd be filthy rich.
The biggest websites in the world would all be
kissing your butt to stay on your good side.
This would likely mean
tons of money, gifts, and
perhaps some special favors.
Not only that, but you could choose what
kind of information you want to spread.
If you like a certain politician,
you could run their ads all over the internet,
spreading their message to billions of people.
Or you could go one step further
and show everyone a video or a
tweet that you made that you'd like everyone to see.
Let's just hope it's not about flat Earth propaganda.
Despite all this power,
you'll still have some downsides to deal with.
Sure, we do have an entire committee to control the internet,
preventing one individual from having all this power.
But would one person
even be up for this kind of challenge?
With the power to control the internet,
you'd be the most powerful person in the world.
This sounds nice,
but it also puts a massive target on your head.
People might kidnap you
because of your fortune and influence,
or they might want to harm you
for how you're using your control over the internet.
So if you really wanted to control the internet,
you'd have to live in a secret bunker,
surrounded by high-level security.
You could never be in the public eye
and would always have to remain in hiding.
Despite having so much power,
controlling the internet
probably wouldn't be as much fun as it sounds.
And besides, if the internet suddenly went down,
then what would happen?
Your power would be completely useless.
Well, we'll leave that story for another WHAT IF.