NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Blinded by the Light: The Internet Enemy Within
Blinded by the Light: The Internet Enemy Within
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000860.html
Truth can be painful. In a relative sense today, most of what you, I,
and pretty much everyone else writes, says, and thinks about the
Internet is, frankly, pretty much crap.
Please don't misunderstand!
I'm not saying that we're all wrong, or that the topics under
consideration aren't interesting or even important in an absolute,
individual sense.
But on the scale of importance and relevance given current events, we
are largely whistling in the dark, missing the forest for the trees,
and yes, being blinded by the light.
The scope of topics that divert us is enormous. We ponder the screen
brightness, battery life, and cpu speed of the latest smartphones. We
argue about cookies and Web ads and the ever growing streams of music
and video. Search Engine Optimization (SEO), spam, and "follower"
counts make for nearly endless speculation. We worry over ISP
competition, bandwidth caps, and Net Neutrality. And then of course
there's Lady Gaga.
All issues of interest and importance, to various people, and various
organizations, in many varied ways.
Yet all of these -- even the policy issues such as net neutrality with
which I've spent so much time -- pale into, if not insignificance, at
least a pale shadow in comparison with the much more major and
fundamental threats facing the Internet and its users today.
Around the world, the intentions of various governments as relates to
the Internet and related technologies are becoming very clear.
Among the aspects now in play by national governments around the
world:
- Countries that legally perform confiscation and total data extraction
of laptops, smartphones, and other devices from travelers, all without
court orders or warrants of any kind
- Countries demanding the right to inspect users' email and other data
stored on "cloud" servers, again with warrants or court orders
- Countries pushing for comprehensive data retention of users' Internet
and other communications activities
- Countries looking to require service providers to "decrypt and provide
to government officials on demand" users' encrypted communications of
all sorts
- Countries that seize domain names -- even those of persons or firms in
other countries -- without due process
- Countries seeking to order DNS (Domain Name System) blocking of sites,
even at the risk of major security and other technical collateral
damages
- Countries seeking to criminalize the mere linking to sites that the
government declares to be illicit
- Countries seeking to order government micromanagement and government
censoring of search engine results to enforce government attempts to
"bury" sites that the government prefers users be unable to access
- And so on ...
Unfortunately, as you've probably already surmised, I'm not talking
about, say, China for this list -- I'm referring to the United States
of America under our current President and Congress (this isn't to
suggest that there's a partisan skew in these issues -- both
Democratic and Republican leaders of all stripes have become
overwhelmingly equal opportunity offenders in these regards).
As the references below suggest, I've been writing about all of these
topics, in various combinations, for quite sometime.
But when they're all listed together -- and remember, that's not a
comprehensive list above -- somehow the forest starts to come into
focus despite the trees that usually grab our attentions from day to
day.
It's a very unpleasant list of government initiatives indeed, all of
which can be argued to be of ostensible value to preserve order and
security, and like so many of their historical brethren, especially
when taken together, represent grave threats to free speech and civil
rights, both on the Internet, and by extension, off the Internet as
well.
This then is the complex of forces that represent a peak of importance
on the "topic graph" -- a peak that pushes most of the other points
down flat almost to invisibility.
This is the array of risks that renders so much of our daily
technological chatter into so much relative insignificance.
Because without free speech on the Net, without communications and
associated activities secure from government eavesdropping and
interference, so many of our technology joys will be morphed into
oppressive nightmares -- sadly at the hands of our largely
well-meaning but often misguided and short-sighted leaders.
Lord Acton noted that, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power
corrupts absolutely." He wrote this in 1887, but this has always been
so, and this truism applies with force all through human history in
every guise, and certainly not limited only to technology realms.
Yet technological power over speech and communications is arguably the
highest order of "absolute" -- and in the context of the global
Internet all the more omnipotent.
The other topics of our Internet joys and concerns, from bandwidth to
broadcast, from social to SEO, from gambling to Gaga, are all still
certainly worthy of discussion, consideration, and many words yet to
be written and said.
But if freedom is lost on the Internet, ultimately none of these other
issues will likely be more than memories -- historical artifacts at
best -- assuming that they're not on the censorship lists of tomorrow
and so relegated to nothingness squared.
Just something to think about, to muse upon, before you send that next
email, compose that next blog posting, or as you settle down to watch
the upcoming video stream with tonight's entertainment on high.
Pleasant dreams. Be seeing you.
- - - -
References (Lauren's Blog):
Why PROTECT IP Web Censorship Will Fail - But Lead to Much Worse:
http://j.mp/legUSl
Let Them Eat Bits": How We Can Save Freedom On the Internet:
http://j.mp/kbMNdK
Why the Internet is the Most Important Thing in the World:
http://j.mp/ixeLqr
The New Campaign to Demonize Google for Their Protection of the Constitution:
http://j.mp/jLDmLU
Censorship, Governments, and Flagellating Google:
http://j.mp/l9SKEU
- - -
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Google Buzz: http://j.mp/laurenbuzz
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com