(And see Internet legal developments to look out for in 2015.)
It is tempting just to change 2014 to 2015 in last year’s piece and recirculate. Nudging and Bludgeoning, Magic wand politics, Politicians not understanding the internet, the Internet as Wild West, Cory Doctorow’s warning of the Coming War on General Purpose Computing, Technological neutrality, Copyright wars, Site blocking and Privacy are as topical as they were a year ago.
It is tempting just to change 2014 to 2015 in last year’s piece and recirculate. Nudging and Bludgeoning, Magic wand politics, Politicians not understanding the internet, the Internet as Wild West, Cory Doctorow’s warning of the Coming War on General Purpose Computing, Technological neutrality, Copyright wars, Site blocking and Privacy are as topical as they were a year ago.
But that would be a cop out. So here are a few more memes
and themes for 2015.
The War on the
Internet. A cynic might say that a politician loves nothing more than an
unwinnable war against an intangible enemy. Each setback demonstrates the resourcefulness
and cunning of the opponent. Stronger measures are urgently required. Tough action
plays to the electoral audience. Another setback feeds the cycle.
Look out for War
on the Internet slogans - ‘Social Responsibility’’, ‘Must Do More', ‘Internet Wild
West’, ‘No Ungoverned Space’ - while tech businesses are demonised, scorned and
blamed for the ill of the moment.
The Internet as
security zone. We know the rules
when we pass through airport security: double-checked IDs, no risky items,
unlimited inspection and above all no jokes. Will the internet come to resemble
a security zone or be the poster child for freedom under the law? Internet laws and quasi-laws challenging
anonymity, demanding removal of undesirable content, empowering suspicionless state interception and criminalising badly judged tweets are with us already.
Berlin Walls in
cyberspace. In the pre-internet world only the most repressive states
attempted to erect impermeable borders, shielding their citizenry from noxious
foreign influences and imposing a monopoly of national law on the state’s
subjects. In its most extreme form this was
manifested in sealed physical borders, bans on external travel, import bans on
books and jamming of foreign broadcasts.
There are signs that, fearful of the inherent global nature of the
internet, even liberal democratic states may be tempted to try to erect borders
in cyberspace that are less permeable than their pre-internet physical equivalents. For more
discussion see slides and video from my presentation at the Aberystwyth University Internet
Jurisdiction Symposium, September 2014.
Fantasy Internet Ministers
praise the liberating qualities of search engines and social media
platforms. Politicians of all stripes
demand more freedom for internet users. National border walls in cyberspace are torn down. MPs repeal restrictive
internet laws and rein back intrusive state powers. Free flow of information
across frontiers becomes sacrosanct.
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