Cyber law assignment: Internet is Anarchy
Question
Task: Prepare a cyber law assignment in NOT more than 2000 words considering the given scenario. Read the following quotation and discuss with relevant examples “The very essence of the internet if anarchy…the anarchy of the internet is powerful, cooperative, functional force that cannot be subjected to centralized control.” Do you agree or disagree with this statement-why or why not?
Answer
It is evident in the cyber law assignment that Internet is a favorable tool for the systems of resistance and if used effectively in the right movements and campaigns, can be very reliable against the autocratic regimes. The inherent anarchist nature of the internet is exemplified by the idea of a stateless and decentralized society where people are able to interact with each other having pure moral transactions and voluntary ideologies. Therefore, herein cyber law assignment, it can be agreed upon that Internet is an impeccable example of organized anarchism of large scale. The is a lack of authority in the regulation and for the control of the internet, the affiliates and the general public engage into voluntary conversation on their own free will, and there is a free flow of information. Collectively internet is a means of freedom, openness and emancipation and the free space allows its members the freedom to act, speak and create with no resistance (Yangand Grinshteyn2016).
The word anarchy derives from a Greek word anarchos, which means no ruler. Hence, as stated in the cyber law assignment if asked whether who rules the internet, the obvious answer will be no one. The respective state governments will try to convince its people that Internet can be taken away any moment of time and it is indeed a privilege. The corporation will even try to make you believe that Internet is their creation and they are the ones who decide the rules. However, the internet is not owned by any single entity, in fact, it is owned by everybody (Chircop2018).
In the online community, everyone is known by nicknames and is faceless, which creates anonymity and equality among all kinds of individuals. The anarchists who are present in the digital space enjoy and embrace these principles of anonymity. These anarchists are usually against any kinds of racism, homophobia, and any derogatory terms and believe in some planning, organizing and leadership. Nonetheless, the internet is not suited to be an agent of organization rather its is more likely an agent of anarchism and chaos. This can be better understood by identifying some of the unique aspects of the internet system:
In the digital space, everyone is their own owner. Every individual and organization is free to craft their own sets of rules for their websites, servers and computers. For example, the rules that are applied in the Facebook website might not be applicable on other social media sites and vice versa. Each digital space has their own set of rules and guideline as per the goals they want to achieve. In another instance presented in the cyber law assignment, we are able to understand that Facebook does ban porn, but not because respective state governments asks for it, but if Facebook allows porn, it will become less popular and members will try to look for more cleaner social network platforms and Facebook will lose its traffic. However, this doesn’t mean that one will not able to find porn in the internet. They can, they just have to look.
All individual member of the digital space is solely responsible for their own security. The owners of the terminals and servers are responsible themselves from any kinds of date or security risks. There is in fact an available market solution for it as well, the antivirus software. There is very little scope for the government to provide any kinds of help in regards to the digital insecurity. Moreover, we don’t even have the need for the government to provide protection from “evil hacker gangs”. There are various solutions available in the market for self-defense and the government cannot just compete with these solutions available.
A huge amount of development was achieved in the Internet during the period of time when the government was not even interested in the regulation and control of the internet. Hence, it is mentioned in this section of cyber law assignment that the development of internet was a dire result of the free markets. However, even with the presence of a free market in the digital space, one is responsible for their own money and how they are willing to spend the same and with increasing availability of various alternatives of the currencies, they are becoming more popular. There is however little or some regulations from the government, but they are easily deceived with a little know how.
There are also numerous free societies seen from various places. For example there are many social media websites present and people are not forced to be there. There is no force of participation as well. Other platforms in the internet are not different as well. It is just the owners of the various servers that make rules in order to compete with any other types of service providers. The members and users are free to roam anywhere. People do not interfere into the lives of other people and their affairs. Not unless they feel a major moral compulsion to react or comment. The usual tendency is to mind one’s own business and go about it.
Moving forward about the right to privacy on the digital platform, it is not required to be written in any democracy’s constitution. Since on is the owner of his or her own server or terminals, it is their sole responsibility to protect the data and effectively secure it. Furthermore, if you have data saved into third party websites such as the Facebook and if they accidently or knowingly leak your data, it is totally an individual’s fault. No one is forced to be on any site, not even to be on the internet. One is online and present in the digital space of its own free will. It is because they wanted and chose to be there. No one is forced to make numerous friends and act nice. There is not even any intervention of government monitoring or directing anyone how to act. Everyone acts voluntarily over the internet (Broeders2017).
Furthermore, people on the internet have a huge tendency to follow the Non-aggression principle, even if they are into any kinds of discussion. Additionally, if there are various options by means of which one can easily ignore someone or even block them out of their digital presence (Schmittand Watts2016).
Another aspect is related to the property rights over the internet. There rises a question whether what would be “property” over the internet. The only property is the computers and servers. Rest of all, everything that you own is connected via the internet. For example, if we the Facebook, it is the property of the one who created the site, until and unless they sell it to other people or entity or organization. Members who open their profile in Facebook have to follow the provided community rules and guideline by the owner to be present there. Apparently, they are even free to visit other similar or any other kind of websites on their own free will. The people are even free to create a website of their own if they are not satisfied by the services that they have been offered.
Currently, internet, the global network of computers can be stated as the highway of information and since it began opening to business in the 1990’s, it has become the media darling. It even acts hosts to the fastest growing communities of individual private users who easily access via the service providers who provide locally established networks. The internet is not owned by anyone and no one even knows who controls the huge traffic of electronic presence, the electronic mails, and software and data base services. This accessibility to anarchy provides a great leveler of the social, political and business households and provides open market for everyone from their home (De Busser2013).
The most conclusive question would be, what keeps the internet the way it is? The answer is one’s complete control over his or her computer systems, devices, servers and other electronic media, the anonymously provided freedom of speech, the lack of ability of the government to regulate and effectively control the internet and the members of the internet easily adapt and learn the ways of self-defense against majority of the attackers.
With the information that I have been able to present forward, it only strengthens my point proving that in the digital space there is a lack of regulator which brings about complete freedom of operations for any individual. By understanding the findings my knowledge of how the internet works exactly was increased and it is a perfect example of automatic anarchist machinery. The picture is clearer with understanding the aspects that I have been mentioned above. There is complete anonymity over the internet and lack of regulations somehow has been able to positively affect the growth of economies, but on the other side this uncontrolled structure of free form of communication and information sharing shows that anarchy is the true essence of the internet.
In a nutshell, it can be agreed upon that internet is a complete working anarchy and whatever association the government has with the internet only puts damage to the free flow and it will survive better with no intervention from the government.
It can be concluded from the above discussion on cyber law assignment that the only major problem started and quickly went worse when we started bringing our real identities into the internet. For example if one says something very controversial on a platform such as the Facebook or Twitter anonymously, the user might max to max get a permanent ban from that platform and it is not even a complete ban from using the platform since the user can again log in using other identity. However, if someone does the same thing and post something controversial with their real life accounts, chances are they might even have to face imprisonment as per the law of the land.
References:
Broeders, D., 2017. Aligning the international protection of ‘the public core of the internet’with state sovereignty and national security. Journal of Cyber Policy, 2(3), pp.366-376.
Chircop, L., 2018. A DUE DILIGENCE STANDARD OF ATTRIBUTION IN CYBERSPACE. International & Comparative Law Quarterly, 67(3).
De Busser, E., 2013. The Data Protection Gap: From Private Databases to Criminal Files. Cyber law assignmentIn Eucrim-the European Criminal Law Associations' Forum (No. 01, pp. 17-22).
Schmitt, M.N. and Watts, S., 2016. Beyond state-centrism: international law and non-state actors in cyberspace. Journal of Conflict and Security Law, 21(3), pp.595-611.
Yang, Y.T. and Grinshteyn, E., 2016. Safer cyberspace through legal intervention: A comparative review of cyberbullying legislation. World Medical & Health Policy, 8(4), pp.458-477.
