Global and mobile internets are created locally but have become global technologies. While the internet is imagined differently in various places, understanding its local contexts and histories is important to comprehending its role in globalization. Debate around internet freedom emerged as the internet became a mass medium, with different countries and activists promoting open or regulated visions of the internet.

1. Global Internets,
mobile internets
Gerard Goggin @ggoggin
lecture for
MECO 3605 Media Globalisation
19.08.2015

2. Internet is global
technology, but
created locally
same is true of
other media forms

6. Internet is an eminently global technology
But is created in specific places, contexts,
infrastructures, forms, languages, societies
around the world
Internet is imagined differently in different places -
‘Internet imaginaries’
we don’t know much about these different
histories (hence my & Mark McLelland’s Routledge Companion to Internet
Histories, 2016, & our Internationalizing Internet Studies, 2009)
way we see the Internet is shaped by a
narrow range of these histories &
imaginaries

7. dual character of the Internet tells
us much about global media (&
media globalization)
to understand the Internet’s role
in globalization – & any media’s
role in globalization – we need to
understand its ‘locations’
(cf. Pertierra & Turner, Locating Television, 2014)

8. ITU, Facts & Figures 2015

9. ITU,
Facts &
Figures
2015

11. more people in world use mobiles
than the Internet (or do they?)

12. global Internet is often mobile

13. ITU, Facts & Figures 2015

14. mobile tech in transition
Mobile phone is part of broader infrastructures
& ecologies of media, communication, ICTs +
other infrastructures (transportation; housing;
educational; everyday)
Mobile Internet
esp. interesting emergent formation

21. Cars + Mobiles 3.0:
Internet of mobilities
& locative media

24. parallel histories – Internet vs. media
globalizations
Media globalization (1990s thing):
– Internationalization of trade; World Trade rules
– Deregulation, privatization, liberalization
– Trade in services
– Growth of trans-national corporations
– ‘cultural’ globalization
– Satellites enable new kinds of television broadcasting
– New technologies
– Changing media consumption habits
– Trade in media content & formats

25. parallel histories – Internet vs. media
globalizations
Internet:
– Data networking in 1960s & 1970s – esp. through
telecommunications
– Financial services, travel services pioneer early
international networks
– Capital becomes ‘informational’
– Internet officially launches in 1969; but doesn’t
become mass medium until the 1990s

26. 4 broad stages of Internet
• pre-Internet & early-Internet (c. 1975-1989)
– long genealogies of communications and media; specific
ways Internet is imagined, arrives, is invented in each
country of study; early uses, adopters, reception, public
discussion
• mass Internet (c. 1990-2000)
– transition from publicly-run, research institution-based
Internet to commercial, mass, mixed, popular Internet; co-
evolution of Internet policies, markets, uses
• always on, social media (c. 2000-2010s)
– broadband Internet; highly interactive, personalized,
configurable, pervasive applications (e.g. blogging, social
networking, mobiles)
• Internet of things & mobilities
– Internet everywhere (almost) – cars, fridges, sheep, health
apps, bodies, sensors, wearable computers (Google Glass);
Internet governance threatened;

27. parallel histories
• Internet
- 1970s & 1980s: email; MUDs & MOOs; early online
games; news groups; emergence of early online news
- 1990s: the World Wide Web (now 25 years old);
webcams; the press moves heavily into online news;
media really involves global as well as local dynamics
- 2000s: broadband becomes standard expectation; mobile
Internet grows (esp. with smartphones & apps from 2007
onwards); video communication becomes cheap &
ubiquitous; blogs, wikis, micro-blogging; social
networking and social media
- 2010s: location-based media; sensor media – see UQ
Sensor Society conference; drones as media (see essay +
talk by Mark Andrejevic)

28. what’s distinctive about Internet &
globalization? - TV
1970s/1980s – Australian Television 1989 (ed. Tulloch and Turner);
programs like Hey Hey It’s Saturday & Perfect Match (overseas formats
with an ‘Australian accent’)
1980s – Dallas – US but adapted/intervenes into television in different
countries – see Ien Ang’s Watching Dallas (1985)
1990s – Mexican & Brazilian telenovelas (soapies) cf. John Sinclair’s
book on Latin American Television (1999) & notion of ‘geolinguistic
region’ (= language & culture matters to media)
2000s – birth of YouTube (2005); television downloading; catch-up
television; Internet television; mobile television; fan websites &
“paratexts” and TV – see reality TV (e.g. Lost, Big Brother) and their
crucial links with Internet & TV
2010s – television on tablet devices; ecologies of television (through
Internet & mobiles); television over the NBN; Pertierra & Turner’s
Locating Television; downloading; TV remediates Internet (channel 7
program on Internet cats)

30. Surveillance
Internet, mobile, social, locative, sensor, Internet of
things
Sousveillance
‘watchful vigilance from underneath’ (Steve
Mann, 1988)
small, portable wearable media for ‘inverse
surveillance’

31. Steve Mann,
sousveillance pioneer
- EyeTap 2004

33. ‘Historically, the oppressed have often risen against
their masters. But today the oppressed have mostly
been expelled and survive at a great distance from
their oppressors. Further, the “oppressor” is
increasingly a complex system that combines
persons, networks, and machines with no obvious
centre. And yet there are sites where it all comes
together, where power becomes concrete and can
be engaged, and where the oppressed are part of
the social infrastructure for power. Global cities are
one such site’
Saskia Sassen, Explusions: Brutality and Complexity
in the Global Economy (2014), loc 185

34. Internet &
mobile activism
in Asia-Pacific

36. EDSA 2: downfall of President Estrada, Manila, 2001 - ‘coup d’text’
Source: http://latitudenews.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/EDSA.jpg

38. Deutsche Welle, ‘People
Burmese monks cautiously optimistic on future’, 01.03.12
Source: http://www.dw.de/image/0,,15735891_303,00.jpg

41. Source: Associated Press; at http://qz.com/275090/here-are-the-contenders-to-
become-the-logo-of-hong-kongs-umbrella-revolution/

46. Allegra Ringo,
‘Understanding
Deafness’. The
Atlantic, 9 Aug,
2013

47. Ayiu John Wuol, ‘Deaf Revolution’, YouTube, 28 Nov 2013

48. Zaitokukai ("Citizens' Group against privileges for foreigners in
Japan”) rally at Shinjuku on 24 January 2010
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Zaitokukai_rally_at_Shinjuku_on_24_January_2010.J
PG

49. ‘People stage a protest against Foxconn, which manufactures Apple products in mainland China, in May 2011
in Hong Kong’, http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/31/tech/gaming-gadgets/apple-boycott-commentary/

50. Source: Matt Klassen, ‘Apple iSlave Uprising’,
http://www.thetelecomblog.com/2012/06/15/apple%E2%80%99s-islave-
uprising/

51. Norse Corporation Dark Intelligence threats real-time map

55. 25.04.2014
Brazil passes new
Marco Civil
da Internet,
or Internet Bill of
Rights

57. Delhi Declaration for a Just & Equitable
Internet
Internet as a global commons
1. The Internet is a key social medium and, in
crucial respects, a global commons … Therefore,
all the world’s people, including those not at
present connected to the Internet, must be able
to collaboratively shape the evolution of the
Internet through appropriate governance
processes that are democratic and participatory.

58. Delhi Declaration for a Just & Equitable
Internet
Democratizing the architecture of the Internet
1. Recognising the global commons nature of
the Internet, all layers of Internet's
architecture must be designed with a view to
safeguard against concentrations of power
and of centralized control.
Internet and Rights
1. All people have the right to basic digital
enablement …

59. emergence of Internet
freedom as concept

60. So who will protect Internet freedom?
Apparently, a band of philosopher-
technologists stands ready to sound the
alarm and take up the cause, if only they
could agree on the precise nature of the
threat or its resolution
Geert Lovink, Dark Fiber: Tracking Critical Internet Culture (2002)

61. Utopian visions of Internet
as zone of/for freedom
Governments of the Industrial World, you weary
giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace,
the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I
ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not
welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where
we gather … I declare the global social space we are
building to be naturally independent of the
tyrannies you seek to impose on us. You have no
moral right to rule us nor do you possess any
methods of enforcement we have true reason to
fear.
John Perry Barlow (1996) Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace

62. Internet freedom as US foreign policy
‘We will continue to defend Internet
freedom, including by addressing
internet repression directly with the
foreign governments involved ...’
2006 declaration by Under-Secretary for State
Paula J. Dobriansky
Source: (P. Figliola et al., U.S. Initiatives to Promote Global
Internet Freedom: Issues, Policy, and Technology,
Congressional Research Service, 2011, p.11)

63. Internet freedom as US foreign policy
2010 - Secretary of State Condolezza
Rice establishes the Global Internet
Freedom Taskforce (GIFT), to provide
US response to violations by repressive
regimes
Source: (P. Figliola et al., U.S. Initiatives to Promote
Global Internet Freedom: Issues, Policy, and
Technology, Congressional Research Service, 2011, pp.
13ff.)

64. Secretary Clinton on "Internet Rights And Wrongs: Choices & Challenges In A
Networked World”, George Washington University, 15 Feb 2011

65. On their own, new technologies do not take
sides in the struggle for freedom and progress.
But the United States does. We stand for a single
internet where all of humanity has equal access
to knowledge and ideas. And we recognize that
the world’s information infrastructure will
become what we and others make of it.
Secretary of State Hilary Clinton ‘Internet
Freedom’ speech, 21 January 2010, Newseum,
Washington, DC

66. ‘a free, widely accessible Internet stands at the
heart of both global communication and global
commerce. Internet freedom enables dialogue
and direct diplomacy between people and
civilizations, facilitating the exchange of ideas
and culture while bolstering trade and economic
growth. Conversely, censorship and other
blockages stifle both expression and innovation.’
Shanthi Kalathil, ‘Internet Freedom: A Background Paper’,
Aspen Institute, Oct 2010

68. critiques of Internet freedom

69. Internet circumvention is hard. It’s expensive … it
doesn’t address domestic censorship, which likely
affects the majority of people’s internet behavior.
The US government should treat internet filtering –
and more aggressive hacking and DDoS attacks – as
a barrier to trade. The US should strongly pressure
governments in open societies like Australia and
France to resist the temptation to restrict internet
access, as their behavior helps China and Iran make
the case that their censorship is in line with
international norms …
As we embrace the goal of Internet Freedom, now
is the time to ask what we’re hoping to accomplish
and to shape our strategy accordingly.
Ethan Zuckerman, ‘Internet Freedom: Beyond Circumvention’, 20 Feb 2010

70. Acknowledging and discussing the power
component of Internet freedom is important for
a number of reasons. First, a particular set of
norms is being built into the institutions,
processes and principles that, to a significant
extent, determine the way the Internet
functions, is governed and develops. In this
context, the promotion of Internet freedom has
become not only a dimension of US foreign
policy, but also an expression of US structural
and institutional power.
Madeline Carr (2013) Internet freedom,
human rights and power, Australian Journal
of International Affairs, 67:5, 622

71. To salvage the Internet’s promise to aid the fight
against authoritarianism, those of us in the West
who still care about the future of democracy will
need to ditch both cyber-utopianism and
internet-centrism [… what I call the Net
Delusion].
Evgeny Morozov, The Net Delusion:
The Dark Side of Internet Freedom (2010) , p. xvi

72. Anyone working on a ‘radio freedom’ policy in the
1920s would have been greatly surprised by the
developments -- many of them negative - of the
1930s. The problem with today’s Internet is that it
makes a rather poor companion to a policy planner
… [The Internet’s] essential unpredictability should
make one extremely suspicious of ambitious and
yet utterly ambiguous policy initiatives that demand
a degree of stability and maturity that the Internet
simply doesn’t have …
Evgeny Morozov, The Net Delusion:
The Dark Side of Internet Freedom (2010), p.283

73. From a global twenty-first century perspective,
Internet freedom is not yet achieved. The same
exact technologies that increase possibilities for
economic and communicative freedom are also
used by governments and private industry to
restrict these freedoms … Even in democratic
countries, degrees of Internet freedom related
to privacy, expression, and individual autonomy
are constantly negotiated against conflicting
values of national security and law enforcement.
As goes Internet governance, so goes Internet
freedom.
Laura De Nardis, The Global War for Internet Governance
(2014), p. 244

74. Imaginaries, practices,
circuits & circulations,
memes of Internet freedom
activism

81. Wikipedia, ‘Imagine a World without Free Knowledge’, 18 January, 2012

85. How has Internet
freedom been conceived
& framed in Australia?
– How did activism for the internet develop in Australia?
– How was it related to existing activist movements as well
as key social and cultural identities and problems?
– Was its emergence and characteristics related to particular
infrastructures, internet cultures and histories, and specific
cultural dialectics and social functions?
– How did/are strands of internet activism relate to regional,
international, and global internet activists movements?

86. Australian Internet activism
• arises from history of struggles against censorship,
stretching back through second half of 20th
century
• history of BBS & internet censorship moves in the
early 1990s, when Australian internet was
becoming a public medium, and its adoption and
use began to raise questions about its rich
capacity for cultural expression and exchange –
especially of previously difficult to obtain and
distribute ideas, materials, and practices

87. ‘The issue is very simple: Labor either supports
measures to protect children from paedophiles
and drug pushers on the internet or Labor does
not support the need to protect children.
Which is it?’
Richard Alston, Minister for Communication,1999
• from 1995-2007 there is a bipartisan concern with
internet and mobile content regulation that is broadly
consistent across different governments
• Introduction of self-/co- regulation for Internet in 1995
appears to be first time Internet freedom is mentioned in
Australian press (in report on US 1995 Internet Freedom
bill)
• Generates a movement against censorship/Internet
content regulation - e.g. Electronic Frontiers Australia is
formed in 1994 (‘Your voice for digital freedom, access
and privacy since 1994’)

88. ‘clean feed’
• 2007: new Labor Rudd govt introduces National
Broadband Network &
• policy of a mandatory Internet filter (‘clean feed’)
• list of banned/blocked websites
• policy was confused; and issues of technical
feasibility were never satisfactory addressed
• catalyzed widespread activism & was opposed by
Internet industry (esp. Google)
• quietly dropped in April 2010
• momentarily re-adopted by Coalition govt in
2013 election, before now Minister Turnbull
managed to have it dropped

91. Australian responses to
SOPA/PIPA legislation
• the US Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) & Protect
Intellectual Piracy Act (PIPA) in 2011-2012
brought widespread reaction & rallies in Australia
• Australia was bound by the Free Trade
Agreement with the US
• so local Internet providers & industry were
concerned about unwieldy requirements
• activists and many everyday users protested new
controls on their use of digital content &
networks

92. Picture from season 4 finale, episode 10, Games of
Thrones, ‘The Children, http://cdn.winteriscoming.net/wp-
content/uploads/2014/06/thechildren2.jpg

94. ‘The American copyright bill attacks the very
basis of the internet.
AUSTRALIANS face a threat to their online
freedom and security as pernicious as it is out of
their hands.
US legislators are set to pass contentious
copyright legislation with which even US
President Barack Obama says he has problems.
This proposed legislation affects internet
governance around the world.’
Nate Cochrane, The Age (Melbourne), 19 Jan 2012, p.13

95. ‘Internet freedom’ - as an imported US term -
has gained increasing resonance in Australia,
reaching its height in the SOPA/PIPA worldwide
protests of 2011-2011;
struggles for the Internet as zone of freedom
have steadily deepened over past 2 decades -
latest being in protests against 2015 metadata
legislation
But Internet freedom as organizing global term is
jarring & doesn’t quite fit Australian context

96. Internet freedom is a solecism in Australia -
cultural traditions, histories of activism, &
media/political traditions are distinct in
Australia
widespread, reflex images of the ‘great Australian Internet firewall’
(2007 - clean filter) or Australia as the ‘village idiot of the Internet’
(1996 - content regulation) are just as misleading as with China’s ‘great
firewall’ moniker
‘net neutrality’ as the big US (‘global’) policy issue doesn’t apply so
neatly to Australia - as discrimination among types of Internet traffic is
not such a key issue (esp. with NBN)
Australia case provides further impetus for need to rethink information
political/movement struggles about Internet from specific imaginaries
& histories in particular places