Peer2Politics

“Effective use of the Internet holds the potential to benefit everyone. Currently, however, its benefits are distributed unequally — some people gain power, wealth and influence from using the Internet while others struggle for basic access. Our vision is a technical, interactive and information rich Internet platform on which people in their communities and elsewhere – the poor and marginalized in Developing and Developed countries, women and youth, indigenous peoples, older persons, those with disabilities–are able to develop and exercise their civic intelligence and to work together equitably and effectively to address our multiple individual and collective challenges.

“All isn’t lost for distributed power, though. For institutional power the Internet is a change in degree, but for distributed power it’s a change of kind. The Internet gives decentralized groups – for the first time – access to coordination. This can be incredibly empowering, as we saw in the SOPA/PIPA debate, Gezi, and Brazil. It can invert power dynamics, even in the presence of surveillance censorship and use control.

“The use of modern communication technologies promises maximum range and the option to reach millions of people “with just a few clicks.” Behind this promise, however, often hide very powerful companies that prosper on data collection. “Data mining”, i.e. the mass gathering and subsequent sale or utilization of user data is big business in the 21st Century. Even countries and their security forces, such as intelligence agencies and the police, are very interested in access to such data and interfaces via automated skimming. This creates a large gap between the fantastic opportunity to communicate with millions of people for free and the protection of privacy in the digital age. A solution to this dilemma is the establishment of decentralized communication systems which are in the hands of activists themselves and which ensure both data protection and the access to as many people as possible in the global network. The building blocks for this are already there: free software, creative ideas, technical programming expertise.”

Social media services can ultimately be run as public utilities, ad-free, at cost, in a democratic spirit and for social ends, in their enormous variety—or else digital society can become ever more subservient to the single end of the accumulation of private capital. The choice is between social life as an advertising platform and socialized social media.

 

I have resisted saying this up to now, and I am saddened to say it, but the US has proved to be an unethical steward of the internet. The UK is no better. The NSA’s actions are legitimizing the internet abuses by China, Russia, Iran and others. We need to figure out new means of internet governance, ones that makes it harder for powerful tech countries to monitor everything. For example, we need to demand transparency, oversight, and accountability from our governments and corporations.