Media Wars 2017, The Establishment Strikes Back
More data will be created in 2017 than during the previous 5,000 years of human history. We are living in a golden age of content creation and sharing - a democratic revolution whose consequences can only be compared to the invention of writing.
However, in 2016, the Western political elites realized the dangers of the democratization of information´s control when the Trump and Brexit campaigns were allegedly supported by an army of internet trolls and Russian hackers. The end of the information monopoly by the traditional media aided the forces that gave the biggest blow to the liberal world order since the collapse of the USSR in 1991. 2017 was, thus, the time for the elites to retake the lost ground.
Tech giants like Google and government institutions like the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have used 2017 to question and reduce the freedoms and rights of users in the web. Certain administrative moves, sometimes unknown to the general public, constitute the most important events against freedom of information and speech that occurred during the year that just ended.
In 2017, after facing complaints by advertisers, Google’s YouTube, reduced the terms to allow monetization, that is to say, advertising revenue streams for “controversial” content producers. YouTube implemented this reduction whilst allegedly manipulating its search algorithms to favor certain content producers, usually well-known media companies. All of these changes could potentially turn YouTube into a substitute of TV instead of the amateur content sharing platform that it used to be.
Besides, certain political actors in both the US and the EU are demanding tech giants like Google, Facebook or Twitter, who are not only a huge part of the Internet, but effectively control it, to tackle down on “hate” speech and controversial content. Both the German government and the EU Commission are working on legislation to tackle down hate speech online, threatening the previously mentioned corporations with fines and restrictions if they don't comply.
This seems like a good idea given the current state of things, but as the vice president of Facebook in the Middle East, Richard Allan points out “Who should decide what hate speech is in an online global community?”
This leads to even larger questions. To what extent can all humanity’s information be controlled by anyone but humanity itself? Should any national or transnational government have enough power to decide what could be shared?
Nonetheless, the biggest hit to Internet freedom around the world came from its birthplace, the United States. In November of 2017, the FCC of “the Land of the Free” decided to end Net Neutrality, which basically forced Internet providers to provide equal access and speed capacity to any website, regardless of its source or content.
This means that from now on, Internet speed and access will become like any other business. Big companies will pay to speed up the access to their websites, while low budget sites would be slowed down, giving the former enormous advantage and, thus, control over the web.
The Internet in the US will no longer be a place for neutral information sharing, but a digital marketplace where the user is constantly monitored by the companies, if not the government.
The biggest gift that we have received from the previous generation is the Internet. It is us, the first generation to be born in the digital age, in whom relies the historical responsibility to defend such heritage and provide our children the same freedom and possibilities that we enjoy. The fight for a free and neutral Internet will continue in 2018.
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