Whose Values

February 18

The Internet is often thought of as one place, as in Barlow’s framing of “our world” in the Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace. But we have already seen that this framing does not play out quite so cleanly. And nor should it, necessarily, because the Internet’s global clientele represent a wide mix of values, both in abstract principles and practical solutions for when those principles collide. This class looks at that issue through the lens of a few specific examples, and starts us toward a larger question: Can we fit all of our different values onto the same Internet?

Download slides from this week's class.

Readings

One Internet or many?

• The Economist, The Future of the Internet: A Virtual Counter-Revolution

• Hal Roberts et al., The Evolving Landscape of Internet Control

• Biz Stone and Alex Macgillivary, The Tweets Must Flow and The Tweets Still Must Flow

• Rachel Whetstone, Free Expression and Controversial Content on the Web

• Eliza Krigman, Next Battle over Net Ramps Up Worldwide (Politico)

Case Study

The Innocence of Muslims

• Wikipedia, The Innocence of Muslims

• Jillian York, Should Google Censor an Anti-Islam Video?

• Ryan Budish, Little “i” Internet: The “Innocence of Muslims” Video’s Impact on Free Speech

• Andy Sellars, The Structural Weakness of Internet Speech

Optional Readings

• Anne-Marie Slaughter, Adapting U.S. Policy in a Changing International System

• Jonathan Zittrain and John Palfrey, Reluctant Gatekeepers: Corporate Ethics on a Filtered Internet (from Access Denied)

• Nate Anderson, Explainer: How Can the US Seize a “Hong Kong site” like Megaupload?

Links

Links Shared in Adobe Connect

Chinese hackers attack NYTs site: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/technology/chinese-hackers-infiltrate-new-york-times-computers.html?pagewanted=all

China blocking access to NYTs: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/world/asia/china-blocks-web-access-to-new-york-times.html?_r=0

Some general background on the Arab Spring: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_spring

Lèse-majesté laws: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lese_majeste

Herdict: https://www.herdict.org/

Article about fantastic trangressive activism happening in China around memes that evade state censors: http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/roflcon-internet-memes-thwart-chinas-political-censors

Ethan Zuckerman on the ITU Debate: http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2012/12/05/good-and-bad-reasons-to-be-worried-about-wcit/

The death that lead to the "I Am Khaled Saeed" Protest: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Khaled_Mohamed_Saeed

Class Discussion

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