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.
