This document summarizes the debate around internet governance and regulation. It discusses how the internet evolved from an unregulated space in the early 1990s to one that now faces increasing government oversight due to criminal activity and security concerns. It notes key events like the rise of spam emails and computer viruses that accelerated calls for governance. While some see regulation as necessary to curb harm, others view it as a threat to internet freedom. The document does not take a clear position, but raises thoughtful points around balancing openness with safety online.

1. Links in the Chain
A Newsletter of the Digital Natives with a Cause? Project Vol. 8 Issue II
Editorial Net Governance & Regulation
On the wrong
side of order ing for the same resources do not adhere to or clicked away to the Recycle Bin.
reason - they subscribe to governance.
The timeline to our current state is provided
The online world is no different from ‘real’ so- not as a history lesson and neither is it an ex-
ciety in this regards. In the early 90s, the Inter- planation for the governments of the world to
net was this proto-tribe or clan with no definite continue with their policies, which have steadi-
chieftains staking claim to territories. Netizens ly entered the territory of human rights abuse.
explored lands, settled down in areas where With increasing criminal activities online – and
they found resources, formed communities, increasing complaints from common man –
built tools and implements (web pages, soft- the governments of the world have found it
ware, applications), interacted with neighbors easy to take charge and gain footholds into
(in forums and groups) and mimicked certain our personal and private spaces. We now
characteristics of offline modes of communi- know more about surveillance, it’s not just a
cation, be it in individual expression, group piece of brilliant fiction out of George Orwell’s
GUEST EDITOR: Nilofar Ansher | India behaviour, networking, conducting business mind. Everything from phone calls, messages
Journalist | Editor | Digital Native | or indulging in leisure. to emails are censored, collated, archived,
Blog: http://www.trailofpapercuts.wordpress.com | studied and sometimes, stopped from being
Twitter: @culture_curate As I see it, there is inevitability to this trajec- sent out. Bloggers have been jailed, digital ac-
T
tory and the Web would one day need gov- tivists have been killed, net services have been
ry as I might, I am unable to climb out ernance. What accelerated external imposition shut down and services to websites have been
of a clichéd well of parables and phrases of monitoring and regulations were other ac- denied arbitrarily.
when it comes to piecing together a co- cidental – and sometimes, deliberate – events
herent write-up on ‘net governance and on- that took place parallel to early net explora- That moral high ground that I started off de-
line regulation’. My thoughts are insistent on tions. The first SPAM email was sent out on 3 fending earlier has crumbled. Now, there is a
driving home the point about ‘great power May 1978; first “bootsector” virus Elk Cloner tightening circle that we are pigeon-holed into
and great responsibility’, ‘you sow what you was released in 1981, affecting floppy disks; and I no longer look to the ‘chief’ to keep me
reap’, ‘freedom is never won, you earn it’, ‘your in 1984, William Gibson writes the book ‘Neu- safe. The chief is in cohorts with the toolman
freedom ends where my nose begins’ – you romancer’ and coins the term ‘cyberspace’, (the group that harnesses technology to make
get the drift – a pronouncedly moral poker effectively distancing the net from the edu- weapons and design our security systems),
stokes this fireplace. cational and scientific “classification” into the lulling us into thinking that we cannot do with-
realm of pop-culture-science-fiction; by 1989 out them. The stage is set for a showdown
So, how do I come off on a moral high ground McAfee Associates were distributing free virus between techno-politico groups on one hand
and err on the side of governance, especially software. and civic-non-governmental factions on the
since I label myself a digital native – a post- other; one trying to hem us within boundaries,
modern netizen, and therefore (perhaps, irra- It’s in the mid-1990s, with the increasing rival- the other constantly redefining the meaning of
tionally), subscriber to all things free, open and ry between business corporations Microsoft, boundaries.
even anarchic? And yes, this is a battle and IBM, CISCO, Apple and Sun that we also see
there are sides. Either you want a cyberspace the first government and legal interventions in What gives you hope for a better cyber soci-
with curfews and lock downs or a Wild West the arena of cyberspace and net technologies. ety? More difficult to answer, which side of the
Frontier, where it’s a free for all. Napster was created in 1999, incentivizing divide do you belong – the one that thrives in
music sharing online and striking the matching chaos or the one that seeks order? I am still
Perhaps a call for governance comes from a of copyright and piracy wars. Also, in the same toeing the line on this one.
self-defined righteousness of the situation. I year, we experienced our first mass annihila-
consider myself in danger (will come to this tion thrill with the Y2K scare, and the year fol- As Pranesh Prakash puts it succinctly, “…too
later), and so, think it’s my moral right to ask lowing, the ‘dotcom busts’ shook our bubble- little regulation and you ensure that criminal
for protection. In turn, it’s the duty of the gov- grade faith in the invulnerability of the Web. activities are carried on with impunity; too
ernment to protect me. Built-in are the dia- In November 2001, The European Council much regulation and you curb the utility of
lectics of trust and responsibility, freedom and adopts the first treaty addressing criminal of- the medium.” But who do you turn to when
power, order and privacy, safety and intrusion; fenses committed over the Internet. the law makers judge you guilty even before
these antonyms constantly warring with each you commit a crime? I guess there’s no ‘one-
other in a space that is nebulous - and vir- So there you have it, our forays in cyberspace solution-fits-all’ answer. What you can bet
tual. Unlike statehood or borders to a city, the were never really about responsible discovery; your last buck on is that for every argument
boundaries of virtual cities are not staked to criminality and juvenile behavior also went there’s a counter-argument. The anarchist
rulers yet. hand in hand. A simple example would be who wants a law-less society is pitted against
the annoying CAPTCHAs that we have to pass someone who wants balance and regulation
History has taught us that no town or village, through before our comments can be made through open data, open government and
no city or state progresses without the cre- visible on a blog. If spammers didn’t have so open culture initiatives. The cynic who is fed
ation and evolution of complex political struc- much leverage online or the tools to hood- up of governmental control is pitted against
tures of control and regulation. A burgeoning wink the system, we wouldn’t need such check the rationalist who calls for policy consultation
population signals the arrival of crime in vari- points, no? The same goes for piracy, phish- with citizen-led groups. The poet who laments
ous degrees and we turn to a single entity to ing, money laundering, cyber-stalking, unso- about surveillance might find solace with the
set things in order. It’s a different matter that licited pornography, hacking and disruption academic stalwarts, who believe dialogue is a
those in power also wreck havoc, however, it’s of secure, functional websites, and a host of better way to achieve our aims - freedom with
also true that a diverse set of people compet- other criminal activities that can’t be ignored balance – than taking up arms.
July 2011

2. CONTRIBUTORS Blast From the Past
No Tolls on The Internet
Excerpts from the article written for The Washington Post on Thursday, June 8, 2006
Pradeep Madhok | India ALBERT MUCUNGUZI Alaa Abd El-Fatah By Lawrence Lessig & Will we reinstate net neutrality and keep the sive deal-making with telephone and cable
Morning: Assistant Manager @ Schneider Robert W. McChesney Internet free? Or will we let it die at the hands giants.
C
(Uganda) Founder, PC Tech Magazine Egypt | Pretoria, South Africa | Egyptian
Electric | Evening: poet @ http://wo-khwab. Blogger | Director of Strategy and Business blogger, software developer, and political ongress is about to cast a historic vote of network owners itching to become content We would lose the opportunity to vastly ex-
blogspot.com Development at PC Tech Communications Ltd. activist Web: http://www.manalaa.net/ | on the future of the Internet. It will de- gatekeepers? The implications of permanently pand access and distribution of independent
Web/Blog: http://almuc.me/blog | Twitter: @alaa cide whether the Internet remains a free losing network neutrality could not be more news and community information through
Twitter: @albertmuc
and open technology fostering innovation, serious. The current legislation, backed by broadband television. More than 60% of Web
economic growth and democratic commu- companies such as AT&T, Verizon and Com- content is created by regular people, not cor-
nication, or instead becomes the property of cast, would allow the firms to create different porations. How will this innovation and pro-
cable and phone companies that can put toll tiers of online service. They would be able to duction thrive if creators must seek permission
booths at every on-ramp and exit on the in- sell access to the express lane to deep-pock- from a cartel of network owners?
formation superhighway. eted corporations and relegate everyone else Most of the great innovators in the history of
At the center of the debate is the most impor- to the digital equivalent of a winding dirt road. the Internet started out in their garages with
tant public policy you’ve probably never heard Worse still, these gatekeepers would deter- great ideas and little capital. This is no acci-
of: “network neutrality.” Net neutrality means mine who gets premium treatment and who dent. Network neutrality protections mini-
simply that all “like” Internet content must be doesn’t. mized control by the network owners, maxi-
treated “alike” (quote marks by me) and move Their idea is to stand between the content mized competition and invited outsiders in to
Dr. Anja Kovacs |Delhi, India at the same speed over the network. The own- provider and the consumer, demanding a toll innovate. Net neutrality guaranteed a free and
| Movements. Activism. Technology. Research. Hasina Hasan | India | Poet | critic | Magic to guarantee quality delivery. It’s what Timo- competitive market for Internet content. The
Mistress | Midnight Hauntress | Activist | ers of the Internet’s wires cannot discriminate.
Feminism. Marxism. Change. Fellow at the Elonnoi Hickock | India
This is the simple but brilliant “end-to-end” thy Wu, an Internet policy expert at Columbia benefits are extraordinary and undeniable.
Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore Policy and Advocacy Advocate @cis_india | Performer | Epicurious Congress is deciding on the fate of the Inter-
design of the Internet that has made it such a University, calls “the Tony Soprano business
| Email: anja@cis-india.org | Twitter: @ Blog: http://sinasan.wordpress.com |
Researcher at Privacy India
powerful force for economic and social good: model”: by extorting protection money from net. The question before it is simple: should
anjakovacs Website: http://privacyindia.org/ | Twitter: @wontonwarrior
all of the intelligence and control is held by every website – from the smallest blogger to the Internet be handed over to the handful of
Email: elonnai@cis-indis.org cable and telephone companies that control
producers and users, not the networks that Google – network owners would earn huge
connect them. profits. Meanwhile, they could slow or even online access for 98% of the broadband mar-
The protections that guaranteed network neu- block sites and services of their competitors or ket? People are waking up to what’s at stake,
trality have been law since the birth of the In- those who refuse to pay up. They’d like Con- and their voices are growing louder by the day.
ternet -- right up until last year (2005), when gress to “trust them” to behave. As millions of citizens learn the facts, the mes-
the Federal Communications Commission Without net neutrality, the Internet would start sage to Congress is clear: Save the Internet.
(FCC) eliminated the rules that kept cable and to look like cable TV. A handful of massive Lawrence Lessig is a law professor at Stan-
phone companies from discriminating against companies would control access and distribu- ford University and founder of the Center for
content providers. This triggered a wave of tion of content, deciding what you get to see Internet and Society. Robert W. McChesney
announcements from phone company chief and how much it costs. Major industries such is a communications professor at the Uni-
executives that they plan to do exactly that. as health care, finance, retailing and gambling versity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and
Now Congress faces a legislative decision. would face huge tariffs for fast, secure Internet co-founder of the media reform group Free
Samuel Tettner | USA / Europe María del Mar Zavala | Asunción, Paraguay use – all subject to discriminatory and exclu- Press.
Researcher @CIS-India | Venezuelan Jew Member of the Environmental Law and
Suffragette Surveillance, 1913
who studied in the US | Science & Technology, James Mlambo | Harare, Zimbabwe
Tech support, budding programmer | ICT action Economics Institute (Instituto de Derecho y
knowledge, networks, innovation, and Economía Ambiental-Paraguay) |
governance | Blog: http://tettner.com | hero for kids and youth @CyberGateway
Websites: http://jamesmlambo.htmlplanet.com/ Twitter: @tuyuyuPY
Twitter: @Tettner
index.html & www.cybercentre.freeservers.com |
Twitter: @james_mlambo
Nighat Dad | Pakistan
James Bridle | UK TakeBackTheTech Campaigner | Privacy
Author of ‘Where the F**k Was I? (A Book)” Activist | Public Policy Researcher | Special
| Has worked in a number of roles within and Mauricio Fino Garzón | Bogota, Colombia Public Prosecutor | Human Rights Activist |
outside the publishing industry, from publicity Profesional en ciencia de la información - Twitter: @nighatdad
and marketing to editorial, and from online bibliotecólogo, interesado en el infoactivismo
strategy to web application development and y con ganas de ser backpacker // Professional
production | Website: http://booktwo.org | information science librarian, interested in
Twitter: @jamesbridle InfoActivism & willing to be backpacker |
Twitter @maolibrarian
Prashant Iyengar | India
Simeon Oriko | Nairobi, Kenya Head researcher at Privacy India and
The boy who changed the world | founder researcher @cis_india |
and executive director of @TheKuyuProject Email: prashantiyengar@gmail.com
& @StorySpacesHQ | Website: http:// Pranesh Prakash | Bangalore, India
mtotowajirani.com | Twitter: @mtotowajirani Policy wonk | Works on issues of IP reform,
‘openness’, freedom of expression, and
transparency at the Centre for Internet and
Society | Twitter: @pranesh_prakash / @cis_india ‘In 1912, Scotland Yard detectives bought their first camera, to covertly photograph suffragettes. The pictures were compiled into ID sheets
for officers on the ground - BBC
http://www.cis-india.org/research/dn/2011/07/03/links-in-the-chain-call-for-participation
1

3. HijackTheTech
Where the F**k Was I? Let’s Talk Open
Free Culture and Open Access initiatives don’t happen overnight and neither can they evolve purely in the realm of
ideologies or revolutions. Let’s start by setting simple examples, says Samuel Tettner
O
ne of the main issues that I think about NGO handout: a manifesto of sorts (see im- cific nodes of impact-players have. If an ISP
under the broad umbrella of “Internet age below), highlighting my goals, the meth- that provides access to 15% of the internet
governance” is net neutrality. You all od and the process of this exercise. The actual population decides to impose limitations on
have heard me rant about the evils of private implementation involved getting the team to websites that people can visit, can the misin-
corporations and how they set an agenda that work together, share ideas and information, formation effects be traced and mapped on a
usually pairs individuals and collective free- especially de-centralization – where one per- larger scale? It is the case that for internet gov-
doms & rights versus profits. At the workshop son doesn’t control the entire workflow. ernance today, public and private interest and
in Santiago (Feb 2011), I raised the issue of Of course, in the complex world we live in, the jurisdictions have bled into each other and
how private corporations do not recognize specifics of an open cultural or political system created a situation in which the role of private
“citizens” but “consumers” as legitimate heirs is not as simple as printing out a manifesto ISPs is crucial to the proper functioning of an
of their ecosystems. At the Fear In The Digital and needs to be fleshed out in detail. For ex- information democracy.
Age blogathon, I also voiced my fear about
private corporations gaining too much power.
The idea for me is to start talking about -
ample, is it worth asking if there are types of Person First
information that should not be open to every-and implementing - the culture of free and
So, how do we move beyond concerns, fears one for security reasons? Having open access open access Person First and promote a
to the Internet Consumer second
What would you do if you discover that your mobile handset records your location and rants against big companies and power-
ful governments? How do we champion the
to government budget allocations and private
campaign contributions would increase ac-
MY RIGHT TO INFORMATION
Consumer second Person First
transparent information ecosystem more as
a fundamental right and feature of modern
democracies ratherRESTRICTED!
WILL NOT BE than a commoditized ser-
Consumer second
openness initiative? In my case, I was a good countability, but is it equally useful to know of
whereabouts without your knowledge? James Bridle chose to take control and starting point for myself as I decided to put future military developments?
MY RIGHT TO INFORMATION
vice. This will curtail RESTRICTED!
WILL NOT BE some of the restrictions
recycle it into a book. In the process, he ends up assessing our status quo with digital the idea of openness into action. For this issue Person First effects and barriers that ISPs are allowed$ to institute
It is also important to understand the
Steps to exercising your rights
of “Links in the Chain”, I created an information on the overall information network that spe- (and get away with). It may sound$ simple, but
MY RIGHT TO INFORMATION
$
sheet similar to the one you would see on an Consumer second 1.
Steps to exercising your rights
such a perceptual shift would be very helpful.
2.
memories.
$
$
Person First 1.
$
James Bridle proximation based on the device’s own “idea” breach a necessary act. Perhaps how Kevin
MY RIGHT TO INFORMATION
Consumer second WILL NOT BE RESTRICTED!
2.
WILL NOT BE RESTRICTED!
of place. The app cross-references me with puts it, in a recent talk, reappropriated for the
“
MY RIGHT TO INFORMATION
I have made another book from data; digital infrastructure, with cell towers and robots: “These are the astronauts for Earth, WILL NOT BE RESTRICTED!
Steps to exercising your rights Steps to exercising message rightsyour local ISP
Cut the
your
Person First
Go to
a printing-out of databases. This one is wireless networks, with points created by oth- and they’re inventing new ways to see rather Steps to exercising your rights$
$ Cut the message
Person First Go to your local ISP
$
called “Where the F**k Was I?” and con- ers in its database. than things to look at. And rather than invent- 3. 3. 4. 4.
$ Consumer second
1.
$ Person First
2. 2. $
$ MY RIGHT TO INFORMATION second
Consumer
Consumer second
$
1.
WILL NOT BE RESTRICTED!TO INFORMATION
ing new places to go, they’re inventing new
MY RIGHT
sists of 202 maps based on my movements $
1.
WILL NOT BE RESTRICTED!
over the past year. We share the city, ways to travel.” 2.
and increasingly
I say “based on” because the data the world, Or this: At the Worlds Literature Festival (June MY RIGHT TO INFORMATION Cut the message Go to your local ISP
Cut the message Go crazycrazy
Go Don’t get caught
Don’t get caught
WILL NOT BE RESTRICTED!
Go to your local ISP
with an- 2011) in Norwich, the Sri Lankan-Canadian
Person First
was not recorded by me, but 3. Go 4. your local ISP
Consumer second
Cut the message to Go crazy Don’t get caught
Image source: http://www.123rf.com and http://www.moteng.com
MY RIGHT TO INFORMATION Image source: http://www.123rf.com and http://www.moteng.com
Person First WILL NOT BE RESTRICTED!
other writer Shyam Selvadurai spoke of the space 3. 4.
Consumer second
by my phone. In April this year, MY RIGHT TO INFORMATION
WILL NOT BE RESTRICTED!
researchers Alasdair Allen and na- between his identities represented by that
hyphen: a place where “the tectonic plates of
Steps to exercising your rights
Pete Warden revealed that the $
Go crazy Don’t get caught
cultures rub against one another, producing Cut the message Go to your local ISP
Image source: http://www.123rf.com and http://www.moteng.com
iPhone was storing location $
$
1. 2.
NewsBytes
data without the users’ knowl- the eruption of my work.” Where Selvadu- Go crazy Don’tFirst caught
Person get
3. 4.
Consumer second
rai is interested in the space between
Image source: http://www.123rf.com and http://www.moteng.com
edge. Using their instructions and my MY RIGHT TO INFORMATION
own scripts, I extracted 35,801 latitude- two human cultural identities, I WILL NOT BE RESTRICTED!
longitude pairs stored on my phone between suppose I am interested in the Perfect filtering of information on the inter- jurisdictions, we should do nothing about and businesses without prior permission or
April and the previous June (when my phone space where human and artifi- net will lead to a fractured communication them — and allow them to be created and warning.
was last updated, wiping its memory). These cial cultures overlap (“artificial” environment http://bit.ly/q1RNlw your local ISP
Cut the message circulated here, too?” http://bit.ly/pjqFkn
Go to
are plotted on OpenStreetMap, one map for ture… is wrong, feels—what? Preju- ------------------------
Person First http://bit.ly/jpgmnW ------------------------
each day, together with a brief note where I the other diced? Colonial? Anthropocen- Andrew 3. 4.
Consumer second
Keen: Compulsive sharing of every-
MY RIGHT TO INFORMATION ------------------------ crazy
Go AuthoritiesDon’t get produce evidence
urged to caught
wanted to tie it to a real event. city is the ab- tric? Carboncentric?). WILL NOT BE RESTRICTED!
thing through e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter The shadow of cyber regulation that jailed bloggerand http://www.moteng.com well
is alive and
stract machine: is really a trap. The logical conclusion of all In response to growing Internet security
Image source: http://www.123rf.com
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
I think: this digital memory is better than the digital networks, There are no digital natives but this personal diarrhea — Keen says “we are concerns, governments are working toward and the Arabic Network for Human Rights
mine—it frequently recalls things and places access points, substa- the devices themselves; no digi-
our own Wikileakers” — creates a frightening further regulation, with the end result pos- Information today called on the Syrian
I have no personal, onboard memory of, and tions and relay points, data- tal immigrants but the devices
world in which private lives all but disappear. caught being its fragmentation into discrete
Go crazy Don’t get sibly government to produce immediate evidence
over time I come to rely on it over my own centers and fiber rings; its in- too. They are a diaspora tenta-
http://ind.pn/9koCId national networks. To avoid such fragmenta- showing that unjustly imprisoned blogger Tal
Image source: http://www.123rf.com and http://www.moteng.com
memories. Just as I recall my sister’s birth not habitants are sensors and screens. tively reaching out to the world,
to understand it and themselves, ------------------------ tion of the Internet, states should negotiate a al-Mallohi is alive and well. The demand fol-
through my own vision, but in the form of a Seeing through the machine’s eyes is a
kind of breach: accessing a grosstoplogy of and across the network to find The (in)Visible Subject: Power, Privacy framework convention on cyberspace. lows several recent news reports saying that
photograph of the event, I appear (physically
and impossibly) in my own mental image. the network. and touch one another. This map- and Social Networking http://bit.ly/kA8sVR al-Mallohi died in a Syrian prison a month
ping is a byproduct, part of the process by Rebecca Schild ------------------------ ago.
This digital memory sits somewhere between This is an atlas, then, made by that other na- by which any of us, separate and indistinct so Schild argues that the interplay between Australia, Seeks To Censor The Internet http://www.ifex.org/syria/2011/06/24/jailed_
experience and non-experience; it is also an ture, seen through other eyes. But those eyes long, find a place in the world.” privacy and power on social network sites After much pressure from the Australian blogger/
approximation and a lie. These location re- have been following me, unseen and without works ultimately to subject individuals to the government, the country’s two largest ISPs, ------------------------
cords do not show where I was, but an ap- permission, and thus I consider provoking More at http://bit.ly/kVaNAF gaze of others, or to alternatively render Telstra and Optus (along with two smaller Does the internet inhibit democracy?
them invisible ISPs, itExtreme and Webshield) have agreed Video: http://www.youtube.com/
http://bit.ly/ppAvib to start censoring the internet, blocking a watch?v=Uk8x3V-sUgU&feature=youtu.be
------------------------ secret list of websites from view. In this new RSA Animate adapted from a
Next Issue: Group Behavior Online. Privacy, By Design
For me, the most interesting questions to
come out of Saturday’s open-space discus-
http://bit.ly/mGOwBq
------------------------
Africa’s First National Open
talk given in 2009, Evgeny Morozov presents
an alternative take on ‘cyber-utopianism’ -
the seductive idea that the internet plays a
Deadline: August 5.
sion of Privacy, By Design at CIS were those Data Initiative: largely emancipatory role in global politics.
that focused around how the notion of Kenya becomes the first country in Africa to ------------------------
‘privacy’ is constructed and negotiated. launch a national open data initiative. Let’s take back the Internet!
http://bit.ly/gZ01JO http://whiteafrican.com/2011/07/07/africas- In this powerful talk from TEDGlobal, Re-
------------------------ first-national-open-data-initiative-kenya/ becca MacKinnon describes the expanding
Please send your contributions to: What next for privacy? ------------------------ struggle for freedom and control in cyber-
“The internet is in part a marketplace for Yahoo planning to spy on user’s emails: space, and asks: How do we design the next
nilofar.ansh@gmail.com horrific images of violence and abuse.
Should we say that, because these images
According to the new change in ‘terms of
conditions of use,’ Yahoo will also be able
phase of the Internet with accountability and
freedom at its core, rather than control?
are created and circulated via many different to spy on incoming emails from individuals Video: http://bit.ly/oHx3YA
Guest Editor: Nilofar Ansher | Design: Albert Mucunguzi (http://almuc.me) / Ronald Muhwezi (@Arr_emRonnie ) http://www.cis-india.org/research/dn/2011/07/03/links-in-the-chain-call-for-participation
2