NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] A Radio Prank, a Dead Nurse, and "The Right to be Forgotten"
A Radio Prank, a Dead Nurse, and "The Right to be Forgotten"
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/001003.html
I will not here attempt to assign blame for the death of 46-year-old
Jacintha Saldanha, a married nurse and mother of two children, who
apparently committed suicide after being "pranked" by Australian shock jocks
Mel Greig and Michael Christian, in connection with the Duchess of
Cambridge's hospitalization in London ( http://j.mp/TKEGg7 [New York Times] ).
Obviously this pair did not intend to seriously injure or kill anyone.
On the scale of pranks, there are far more dangerous stunts -- a
series of "terrify the passengers" fake "elevator" hoaxes currently
making the video rounds seem far more malicious and potentially
harmful.
Then again, nobody was actually physically hurt, much less killed, in
the elevator videos. A woman did die in the name of ratings for
Greig, Christian, and Sydney station 2Day FM.
I will make no apologies for my distaste of radio shows and
personalities that use the humiliation of innocents as the currency of
their supposed entertainment value.
Yet we cannot know with any certainty the complex of personal
circumstances that led to this likely suicide. We can, however,
perhaps make some pretty good guesses.
While the hospital involved and the royal family assert that they did
not heap scorn or punishment on the victim, the level of humiliation
in any case must have been extraordinarily high.
In the age before the Internet, even a story with such drama would not
likely have had a very long shelf life, a fact that might have limited
the sense of humiliation felt by the victim, and also limited, as we
shall discuss in a moment, the long-term impacts on the perpetrators
of the prank.
But this is indeed the age of the Internet. Such events not only will
be broadcast and published globally to an extent unimaginable just
decades ago, but will also be -- for all practical purposes --
permanently archived.
When anyone searches for the names of those shock jocks in the future,
the odds are very high that at or near the top of the results will be
their roles in the tragedy of this death. There will be no escape for
them, just as there is no way to resurrect the victim.
This is, in fact, as it should be. The death and their involvement
are events that are inexorably associated, real and irrevocable, they
are very much the stuff of reality.
Reality. It's a critical concept. It's a concept through which these
events may also be viewed as an extraordinarily tragic -- but
extremely important -- "teachable moment" related to the ill-conceived
and dangerous censorship regime of the so-called "Right to be
Forgotten" ( http://j.mp/AatI0J [Lauren's Blog] ) being pushed onward
by the EU, despite their own study group calling it technically
impossible to effectively implement ( http://j.mp/TIzR3j [Techdirt] ).
It may seem harsh to some observers that in the future, searches for
information about any of the parties impacted by this death will very
likely prominently feature links to the associated sites and pages
describing these days in detail. It also seems likely that if they
could, many of these same parties -- the living ones, that is -- might
like to "erase" or somehow de-emphasize these events from Web sites
and search engine results.
However, just like attempting to change reality on the Web in any
other cases through what amounts to a "right to censor what actually
did occur" concept, this would be both wrong and incredibly damaging to our
own "right to remember what has actually happened."
For it takes little imagination to visualize the vast numbers of
players -- inside and outside governments -- who would joyously grasp
the ability to slice pieces of reality off from public discovery or
view, very much like Winston Smith's daily task in "Nineteen
Eighty-Four."
Actions have consequences. And the Internet has a very long memory.
Those are the realities of the world in which we live. They cannot be
wished away. Nor should we desire to treat actual events as if they
were merely mutable phantasms or fantasies.
For reality is always important. All too often, and of course not
just in the tragic case today, it truly is a matter of life and death.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
- Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org
- Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
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