The Internet freedom - 'A grand illusion'

The recent uproar among the digital activists about SOPA ( Stop Online Piracy Act ), PIPA ( Protect Intellectual Property Act ) and ACTA ( Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement ) should drive us to analyze the real political and economical existence of internet as a global media.

Internet is always a source of knowledge and communication for us. So far so good. But beyond the existence as a repository of knowledge, it has become the best medium for integrating the human society beyond the national borders. This is exactly what global capitalism required. Globalization cannot thrive without surpassing the national boundaries and in the mission for globalizing the markets world wide, internet became the best tool available.

Thus commercialization and commoditization are inherent in the soul of internet. Unveiling its disguise as a knowledge repository, internet has already become a global market place with the proliferation of e-commerce and e-retailing platforms. Like market economy, internet is also non-linear and chaotic, and not affiliated to any nation explicitly.  And it grows by serving the interests of the market.

The search engines and social media in addition to their defined capabilities aid the market by user-targeted advertising and stealing the user information.  The personalized ads in facebook and g-mail are the best examples for this. Recent Iphone tracking scandal through google ads can enlighten us about the user data theft practiced by the search engine giant. And google is not the single corporate doing this practice. When we voice our concern on the limits on our freedom, we are unknown about the invisible theft that is going on unnoticed. This is the unique nature of capitalism aided by high technology.

And in this role, many a times internet companies are working hand in hand with US government to sabotage the foreign national governments which are standing against its market and geo-political interests. The alliance between Google and National Security Agency of United States is one among such incidents. The use of Twitter to instill a coup in Iran may seem to us like a modern day method of revolution. But we tend to forget the fact that technocracy is not an alternative to democratic movements. When we get excited by the instant success of Facebook led overhaul of Mubarak led Egyptian government we are forgetting the fact that it has not led to a democratic government till now.

The national governments world wide have already become conscious about the potential of information warfare. 'Open Source Intelligence' practiced by CIA is one among such ideological device. And many a times , this is making them introducing restrictions on the nature of content. The content filtering by governments of China, Belarus, Cuba and many Islamic nations are the reflections of this.

No doubt, the openness of information is getting affected here. And it is a complex issue as well.

But we need to understand the fact that the elected governments world-wide have their powers to protect the sovereignty of the state and the private lives of its people. Like any media, internet also cannot assure the authenticity of content always. So misinformation can malign private lives, and damage the reputation of institutions.

So by the internet censorship ordinary netizens are getting affected world wide, but it can be resolved only by a international internet governance model including all the national governments,  and making the IT giants accountable internationally. The 'hide and seek' game between US government and its surrogate funded internet giants like Google and Facebook will never resolve this riddle. It will only fool the eyes of common man through vague laws like ACTA. SOPA and PIPA which will be selectively used to benefit its corporate interests world wide.

Thus internet was never free and open world of equal opportunities. It has grown by leaps and bounds by creating a global consumer society, not a networked information society as somebody preaches. Subjecting information for the purpose of advertising and marketing will never form an information society. Information cannot equalize the society but can only generate the consciousness for that purpose. And such an egalitarian aim is well beyond the goals of fat cats leading the global technocracy.

Internet freedom and the Nature of Content: A Question of Openness and Integrity

As we blink and think, along with us internet is growing like never imagined. This multi-faceted network has become the other state of existence for humane society. But the rise of internet as the most potent medium beyond the national boundaries has generated unseen challenges for the society.  

On one side we have advocates for  internet freedom like civil society activists, bloggers, Wikipedia and technology giants and E-commerce corporates. And on the other side we have nation states and conventional media companies voicing concerns over the hate campaigns, political blogging and piracy over internet.  As internet offers fathomless opportunities, each one has their own reason to dominate the flow of information over internet.

As this tussle goes on, it is worth understanding the nature of internet as a media as well as a network society. The massive amount of data, maturing commercialization of networks  and the existence as a instantaneous communication medium defines the specific nature of internet.  

The massive amount of data that is transacted through internet makes it chaotic to human senses. With the parade of innovations in the data storage and transmission, internet communication has become near to instantaneous. The more transient the communication becomes, lesser important becomes the historicity of data.  Thus if a political issue is debated over internet, the huge volume of opinions created at that moment can possibly potentially mask the root cause of the issue. This is due to the limited capacity of perception of human mind. These factors can make rational judgement through internet debates quite difficult. 

Despite that when conventional political mobilization becomes next to impossible, internet naturally becomes the best alternative.  But there comes a riddle. Even after two decades of inception, internet remains an apolitical entity to a large extent. Debating a political topic over a non-political platform is a tricky issue. Increasing awareness and protest from political society against the hate campaigns in facebook is a pointer towards the chances of confrontation between the existing political fabric and the rising internet based civil society. Already we have entered a terrain of contradictions between global market capitalism and nation states world wide. 

Though the hate campaigns appear superfluous and harmless at the outset, they can create imprints in the social consciousness. They can act as the epic centers of civil society movements. As our society has become more and more ideological, symbols have a deeper impact on the political consciousness. 

Social media in particular and internet in general advocates openness and transparency. In theory, these terms posits abstract and vague definitions. Only in relation to a specific context, openness and transparency achieves meaning. The information security is a vital issue not only for corporates but for political economy as well as personal life of netizens. But this fact is conveniently ignored by the interests of information capitalists driving social media. 

On the other front we can see that internet has become a commercial platform for finance capitalism. We should see the newly drafted Stop Online Piracy Act ( SOPA ) and Protect Intellectual Propriety  Act ( PPIPA ) by US congress in this light.  These laws are undoubtedly driven by motives to commercialize information further and deeper. But at the same time, the corporates like Yahoo, Google, Facebook and Microsoft also thriving by the free use of information created by user generated content. For both the parties 'Data is equal to Money'. Thus the situation demands a rational perspective and impartial analysis. 

Freedom is a concept with open knots. It does not envisage an anarchy of expression, but an urge for knowledge beyond the chains of inequality, money and irrationality.  This is applicable in the terrain of technology as well.  The people and realpolitik should move in this direction rather than becoming the shadows of the corporate rhetoric and market propaganda.