This document contains summaries of several topics related to politics and control of the internet. It discusses protests in Poland against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), China's structure for controlling internet access, a correlation between internet users and press freedom in China, concerns about how the internet may impact diversity of political views and comparisons to traditional media, types of user-generated content on the internet, and questions about how certain groups may be helped or hurt by an open internet model.

1. Y490 Politics of
the Inter net
April 11, 2012

2. Pirates of Silicon
Valley
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80zFQ57R
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80zFQ57

3. Polish Legislature anti-ACTA protest
Source:
http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/27/2751960/polish-politiican-acta-protest-anony

5. China’s Intra/Internet Control Structure
Source: Ziang (Alex) Tan: Telecommunications Policy 23 (1999), p. 272.

6. Pearson’s Correlation: 11 cases: Unit: per Year.
Number of Internet Users in China by Press
Freedom
YEAR Number of Press Freedom Correlation
Internet Users in *
China (ml)
2000 22.5 80 .855
2001 33.7 80
2002 59.1 80
2003 69.0 80
2004 94.0 80
2005 103.0 82
2006 137.0 83
2007 162.0 84
2008 253.0 84
2009 384.0 85
2010 420.0 84
p= 0.01 level (2 tailed)
*Freedom of the Press: Higher scores = less freedom
Press Freedom Scale: 0-30: Free 31-60: Partly Free 61-100: Not Free, Source:
Freedom House, www.freedomhouse.org/China

7. Some of our original
concerns:
 Does the Internet make it possible for there to
be more diversity in the political views
expressed in the public sphere?
 How do we compare the media on the Internet
to the media that were previously available?
 Does the greater amount of user-generated
content in blogs and social networks result in
stronger democracies?

8. User-Gener ated Content and
Applications
 Blogs and Vlogs
 Web 2.0 applications
 Facebook
 Other social networking sites
 Twitter
 eBay
 Amazon reviews
 IMDB reviews and other content
 Craigslist
 Wikipedia
 Flickr

9. T he Long Tail
Hypothesis
Pareto Distribution
(aka Power Law)

10. Another Way to Look at
the Long Tail

11. Questions
 Will the people on the left side of the long
curve be hurt by the people on the right
side? If so, what is gained and lost?
 Does bad behavior by the little guys ruin
it for everybody?
 How can people protect themselves
against network mischief?

12. Zittr ain Contr asts PCs
with iPhones
PC iPhone
Type of Generative Appliancized/
Technology Tethered
Type of Open Proprietary
Software
Type of Anarchic Controlled
Network

13. Definition of
Gener ativity
 “… a system’s capacity to produce
unanticipated change through unfiltered
contributions from broad and varied
audiences…” (p. 70)

14. Featur es of a
Gener ative System (pp.
71-73)
 Leverage
 Adaptability
 Ease of mastery
 Accessibiity
 Transferabiity

15. Basic Pr opositions
(Zittr ain, p. 64)
 The IT ecosystem functions best with
generative technology at its core.
 Generativity instigates a pattern both
within and beyond the technological
layers of the IT ecosystem.
 Proponents of generative IT systems
ignore the drawbacks attendant to
generativity’s success at their peril.

16. Layer Model
 Highest: Content
 Intermediate High:
applications
 Intermediate Low:
operating systems
 Lowest: physical

17. Advanta ges of Layer s
 Engineers can tinker with one layer
without necessarily affecting the other
layers.
 The hourglass shape means that there is
lots of room for innovation above and
below the operating systems and
protocols levels.

18. Pr oblems with Gener ative
Technologies and Anar chic
Networ ks
 Malware: worms, viruses, trojan horses
 Incompatibilities in hardware and software
which create difficulties for beginners (steep
learning curves)
 Use by criminals, political extremists, hate
mongers, pornographers, child molesters,
cyberstalkers
 Vulnerability to cyber attacks of various kinds
that go beyond malware (e.g. denial of service
attacks, identity theft)

19. Identity Theft
 The blanket term for any type of crime wherein the
offender uses another individual’s legitimate personal
information to commit acts of fraud or deception, typically
for illicit financial gain
 Where a person’s identification details are obtained
through various covert methods, from rifling through the
contents of household dustbins to “phishing.’
 Phishing is a form of fraud where the criminal
pretends to be a reputable organization that needs
information about some business you may have
done with them

20. Identity Theft and
Fraud
 Identity theft is not really a
specific kind of fraud, but an
act that leads a person to
be able to commit fraud
 Fraud generally is the
attempt to convince for any
reason that you are
someone other then
yourself.
FTC video on identity theft

21. Examples of Hate
Speech on the Internet
 Nazis and Neo-Nazis
 Sale of Nazi objects
(involving EBay)
 French policies
(involving Yahoo
based sales of Nazi
stuff)
 Hate groups
 Hate Watch

22. Danger s Inherent in
Tether ed Systems
 Network service can reprogram appliances at
will (through their periodic updating of
appliance software)
 Some appliances can record private
information and make it available to those with
access to the network (police for example)
 Tethered networks can be used for censorship
Controversy over Amazon e-books

23. Examples of
Censor ship on
Tether ed Networ ks
 Skype in China is used to censor words
like Falun Gong and Dalai Lama
 Google.cn makes searches for Falun
Gong and Tibet fail
 FBI can use OnStar for surveillance
 Use of cameras in mobile phones?
Flexispy software for cell phones

24. The News Corporation
Scandal
 News of the World tabloid in UK hacks into cell
phones of Prince Harry and others to get
sensational stories
 Photo of Prince Harry wearing a Nazi uniform
to a fancy dress party
 2002 kidnap and murder of a British schoolgirl,
Milly Dowler
 Exposure of
top level News Corporation approval of illegal phon

25. Should Cell Phones Networks
be more like the PC-Based
Internet?
 Cell phone operators clearly are opposed
to this
 Should “net neutrality” be extended to
cell phone networks?
 Should we personally favor PC-like
Google-Android platforms over more
tethered platforms like Apple’s iTunes,
iPod, iPhone, iPad?