In this blog I will try to analyse the effect of the Internet on the society of today in reference to the way the information systems of the past shaped the societies of the past
Information is and has always been power and as with any source of power the ability to control the flow of information has always been fought over. Thus, it should be unsurprising that the Internet is undergoing an upheaval based around censorship (real or perceived) and the issue of free speech. Be it the use of fake accounts by foreign powers to magnify consent or division where previously little existed, or the ability of companies controlling major media and social media outlets to supress or magnify information at will.
To take the first objection in its historical context, the use of half-truths and manufactured consent is not a new idea, having occurred in most of the world in one case or another and being refined to its modern form in the Soviet Union under the name Agitprop (agitation-propaganda), however its offensive use is. Due to the Internet allowing communication with virtually anyone from anywhere it is possible for states to not just shore up support in their own population but actively destabilize enemies abroad with virtually zero risk. Due to the modern system of many powers in constant semi-hostile competition with each other it is more or less guaranteed that offensive agit-prop will be a major weapon in the denial of liberty of action to the adversary and will likely soon be adopted by all powers with countermeasures assumably being developed in the near future.
The second idea is grounded in a different historical tradition, that of liberty. Any control of information as previously stated, empowers the controller and censorship has existed for as long as organised information distribution has. However, in the case of the Internet rather than it being a nation that censors or promotes information it is private corporations. This has been sometimes lauded as a good thing as the Internet is less open to control by the state. However, it is hard to justify the control of the most common place to find information by a handful of corporations that explicitly do not have the best interest of the users as their first priority, as despite any claims to the contrary, they have both the ability and the desire to profit off the control of peoples data and thus inevitably will do so regardless of the cost that incurs upon the users.
In general, it is clear the Internet is undergoing a tumultuous realignment with both nations and citizens the world over growing increasingly aware of and hostile to the control of the Internet by a few corporations and the increasing prevalence of manufactured consent and digital agitprop. The solutions for these problems are myriad and will stretch from the Russian and Chinese efforts to separate their networks from the Internet as a whole, to the increasing scrutiny tech companies face in the West. While I am firmly convinced that the Internet is and will always be a net positive to humanity if we wish to ensure that the power of the Internet is not controlled by the few or marshalled against the Liberal Democracies of the world both citizens and governments must act to regulate it.
