Is Internet Freedom Here to Stay?

We are living in a time of unprecedented and likely temporary internet freedom. This freedom increases our access to information, our ability to communicate with others and our ability to participate in political activity. Enjoy it while it lasts and do your part to keep it around for your kids. Here are just a few of the amazing freedoms internet gives us and a few of the main threats to that freedom.









Internet freedoms we now enjoy:

1. A seemingly endless and ever-expanding range of music, films and books freely (or nearly freely) available at the click of a mouse.

2 Cheap, fast internet that allows you to send instantaneous messages to friends half a world away. Smart phone technology is allowing us to receive those messages at all times during the day, no matter where we are or what time it is. Recently, Finland declared access to such internet connections a civil right.

3. Free, high-quality knowledge. Wikipedia is a massive depository of knowledge of all things. Ranging from quantum mechanics to the history of your college to the favorite colors of your favorite band, it is all there. And if you are more one for visual acquisition of knowledge, try out Khan Academy where high level classes are made available to anyone, at zero cost to the viewer. This amazing availability of knowledge has made obsolete every Introduction "101" course ever taught (note to teachers: if your class is not better quality than the wikipedia article on the topic, consider a new profession because your internet savvy students will be considering a new teacher)


4. Internet provides a platform for promoting greater transparency as can be seen by internet's role in the Wikileaks leaks. Even if you're not a fan of Wikileaks, think of things like Dead Drops and the proliferation of online whistleblowing cites. Such initiatives help hold people in power accountable and, if used, can help prevent oil spills, Enrons, media corruption and war crimes (think Daniel Ellsberg, Richard A. Clarke, Bradley Manning).













Threats to internet freedom:

1. An Internet kill switch:

During the protests in Egypt and the riots in the UK the government desired to cut of internet access to stifle unrest. Although in the UK this did not actually happen, Prime Minister Cameron has started work on figuring out how to make this possible in the future. While the United States is toying with this very idea on the federal level, government actors in San Fransisco seem to be way ahead of the game. On August 12th, 2011, San Fransisco's BART subway system decided to cut off cell phone networks when it got word that a protest was being planned against the police shooting of Charles Hill.

2. Net non-neutrality

Steps toward an internet world in which bandwidth providers get to determine which type of data has priority to be transmitted on their bandwidth seems to threaten to reduce levels of internet freedom. Although people disagree about what the effect of net unneutrality would actually be, it seems logical to conclude that it would lead to an increased level of data discrimination, simply because the bandwidth providers will give priority to the data that ends up making them the most money.

3. Blocking internet access

In 2009, the French parliament passed the HADOPI law. This law allows the government to block internet access to IP addresses that had been caught illegally file sharing. Initially, the bill proposed to allow the government to do this of its own accord, but this provision was struck down by the French constitutional court. The bill was reworked to require judicial review before cutting of internet access.

This law can be criticized as a severe infringement on the right to freedom of expression and the right to access to information. The extreme nature of shutting down internet service completely for up to a year leads to serious concerns about whether this law is disproportionate to the aim of securing the property rights of the owners of the data being shared illegally. The extreme nature of this measure is highlighted by the fact that the goal of protecting property rights of data owners can be met with a measure that is far less intrusive into the rights of internet users: have internet users pay a standard monthly fee that grants them unlimited downloading. The fee is used to compensate the artists for the use of their intellectual property. Such a solution, first proposed by the national secretary for France's Socialist Party, Patrick Bloche, is non-intrusive and leads to a fair and reasonable balance between the rights of internet users and IP owners. Moreover, it leads to a situation that is the best possible outcome for both sides: internet users still have unlimited access to data, without having to change their internet downloading behavior at all, and IP owners get compensated. What a rational and reasonable solution! By deciding to go with the far more extreme and far more punitive HADOPI law, the French government treads dangerously near human rights violations.





Here's to hoping that future generations will enjoy as much internet freedom as we do ...

Let me know your thoughts on how to keep internet freedom alive!









P.S. I'm sorry if my spelling internet with a lower-case "i" offended anyone. However, I don't see the point of using a capital. I don't spell "phone" or "postal mail" with a capital "p" and don't see any reason for treating the "i" differently.

P.P.S. Neither this post nor the pictures above are in any way meant to pass any judgment on Anonymous. I used the picture above that contains Anonymous' logo simply because the quotes express the way I feel about internet freedom.