Consent of the Networked

November 7, 2011
A global Internet policy advocate, MacKinnon argues in this fascinating and provocative book that it’s time to stop debating whether the Internet is an effective tool for political expression and to move on to the much more urgent question of how digital technology can be structured, governed, and used to maximize the good it can do in the world and minimize the evil. The first step in such a process involves building broader public awareness and participation; individuals must stop thinking of themselves as passive consumers of the Internet and start acting like citizens of the Internet, or “netizens.” Some activists have urged that individuals should build their own networked intellectual commons rather than relying on the Internet. In 2011, Access Now, an Internet freedom advocacy group, drafted the Charter of Human Rights and Principles for the Internet, advocating 10 principles, ranging from universality and equality, accessibility, and rights and social justice to diversity and network equality. Embracing this document, MacKinnon forcefully and passionately urges us to stake out our Internet rights before governments or corporations completely take those rights away from us.

March 1, 2012

MacKinnon's (Bernard L. Schwartz fellow, New America Fdn.) persuasive book clearly describes the mechanisms--both technical and political--that governments and corporations use to curtail citizen's rights in the United States and around the world. She uses many real-life examples and anecdotes to illustrate the complex web of policy and technical infrastructure that allows governments and corporate interests to censor, surveil, and otherwise impede free expression and individual liberty. These encroachments on individual liberty are happening in a space where average people tend to think of themselves as passive users rather than active citizens. MacKinnon argues for citizens to empower themselves against these repressive forces by demanding that software companies and others shaping the technological landscape be held accountable. VERDICT MacKinnon's book is required reading for anyone interested in global information policy. Both lay and academic readers will enjoy her clear prose and methodical approach. Anecdotes and real-life applications make the book accessible without sacrificing depth and insight. An important, timely, and persuasive rallying cry.--Rachel Bridgewater, Portland Community Coll., OR

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2012
An incisive overview of the global struggle for Internet freedom. MacKinnon, a former CNN journalist in Beijing and now online-policy guru at the New America Foundation, warns of the threats to online free expression and assembly at a time when our political lives are highly dependent on digital services and platforms largely owned by the private sector. The corporations and governments that govern cyberspace ("sovereigns operating without the consent of the networked"), she writes, are not being held sufficiently accountable. In her wide-ranging book, MacKinnon details the many ways in which governments, corporations and others are using the Internet--from empowering people to helping authoritarian dictators survive. In China in 2009, online citizen protests forced the government to drop murder charges against a waitress who inadvertently killed a Party official while fighting off his sexual advances. But the Internet also serves as a means of political control for the Chinese government, whose complex censorship system is able to distort the information on issues and events reaching people, including educated elites. Although China is the most advanced case, other authoritarian regimes take similar advantage of their power over private networks and platforms. In the United States, writes the author, present laws and policies make it "vastly easier for government agencies to track and access citizens' private digital communications than it is for authorities to search or carry out surveillance of our physical homes, offices, vehicles, and mail." With all governments now using technology to defend their interests, it is time to develop innovative ways to hold companies accountable for business, software and engineering choices. The author describes the hopeful emergence of a decentralized "transnational movement to defend and expand Internet freedom," which might eventually shift the balance of power. At the same time, individuals must raise their awareness of online-freedom issues, becoming citizens of the Internet--"netizens"--rather than passive users. An informed call to action by the "networked" to protect their rights.

(COPYRIGHT (2012) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

January 1, 2012
Who owns the Internet is a question commonly answered with descriptions of how it is decentralized and anonymous, thus implying that the answer is no one. Otherwise, web surfers wouldn't see the plethora of extreme site choices, from online alternative-medicine guides to antigovernment chat rooms. Yet according to media policy expert MacKinnon, the freedom to post and roam on the Internet to one's heart's content with minimal privacy worries is being curtailed insidiously from multiple sources. MacKinnon begins by drawing on her past experience as a Beijing CNN correspondent, describing how, far from being a tool for undermining tyranny as it was during the recent Egyptian regime collapse, the Internet in China has been policed and co-opted by the government to spy on its citizens. Although these human-rights abuses are not as obvious in Western nations, MacKinnon points out that American corporate interests and political conservatives are pushing to restrict Internet freedoms as well. A vitally important analysis of Internet manipulation that should be read by anyone relying on the web for work or pleasure.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)