Business - Written by Danny Williamson on Friday, March 14, 2008 15:32 - 7 Comments
Freedom of speech, privacy, the internet and the way of the dodo?
There are a lot of things I love about the internet. I love the way I can find information on anything that pops in to my head at any second of any day. I love the way the internet makes fascinating products from strange fellows. Most of all, I love the way the internet gives voice to anyone. All that aside, I’m having a hard time seeing the internet in a rosy light this week. It seems like everywhere I look this week, someone is attempting to limit privacy or curtail freedom of speech online.
Let me start in Kentucky. Last week, Tim Couch, a state representative in Kentucky filed state legislation that would make anonymous comments made online illegal. Admittedly, his goal here is to crack down on online bullying in the State of Kentucky – a reasonable and admirable goal. Having said that, there are a couple of things here that bother me. First, I’m not a lawyer but I’m fairly certain that violates some part of the United States Constitution -say the First Amendment. Second, I suspect that this would be prohibitively difficult if not impossible to enforce.
From Kentucky, follow me on over to India. Today RIM executives, service providers and governmental officials are meeting today to try and come to some agreement over the Indian government’s demands that RIM allow the government to intercept messages sent by Blackberry in matters of national security. I can’t help but feel that blanket assertions that governments need to restrict everyone’s privacy based on some vague idea of security is asking us to give up more than we gain.
Here’s my basic problem. Free speech is vital to democracy. The internet has the potential to be arguably the greatest tool for free speech we’ve ever seen but that potential is always subject to the will of people who use it. If we fail to be vigilant the internet has a much opportunity to become an orwellian tool of oppression as a tool for free expression.
7 Comments
Some people just don’t get it! « Barthox little posts’ keep
Privacy, on the internet, is an illusion. Everything you do online is recorded somewhere, sometimes in multiple places. This data is easy to access. It’s different than bugging someone’s house or peeking in their window.
Otherwise, I agree with you.
Free speech is constantly endangered in every media.
Danny Williamson
John,
Great point. What I find interesting is at no point in history has more of your personal information been available than in the internet age and yet, people are far more cavalier about protecting their own personal records online than anywhere else.
It is interesting.
I wonder if it’s because in the past, personal data was protected by those holding the data as opposed to those providing it. For example, one could be reasonably assured that some stranger couldn’t walk into a their doctor’s office and have access to their medical records. It’s become a habit to assume that others are protecting their information.
Danny Williamson
Very true. Part of it as well may be that previously, if someone wanted to steal my medical information (for instance), they’d actually have to physically go to the office and steal the documents. Now in the digital era, a reasonable level of technical understanding makes information far more vulnerable.
Wikinomics » Blog Archive » Now Youtube watches you back.
[...] questions of privacy for me. It’s possible that I’m becoming privacy paranoid (see my post of a couple of weeks ago) but the amount of information about us and what we do online grows every [...]
Peace be unto you. I am a censored and banned writer. However the greatest threat to my right to Free Expression has come from my Internet Service Providers are other unknown parties denying me the right to freely use my email service.
I have an on-line Journal. Since January 2009 I have had on-going problems posting my Journal. By June 4, 2009 I changed Internet service Providers from TDS to Comcast. However I still have not been able to post my Journal. Meanwhile Comcast seems to repair the problem but when I get ready to post the Journal the problems is still there. I have contacted the Corporate Office and had technicians to come to my home based business but there has been little or progress.
I have had problems with my right to Free Expression, Academic Freedoms since I was a graduate student 1971-1973. I have published 3 books and all have been censored. Is there any agency that can assist me with these problems? For a good look at my work see my web pages: http://www.freedomjournalpress.com.
I can also forward if possible other information if needed.
Peace,
Carl A. Patton
FreedomJournal Press
P.O. Box 1745
Murfreesboro, TN 37133
615-471-1681
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[...] second story was posted on the Wikinomics blog, and is letting us know about a state representative in Kentucky who filed a state legislation [...]