Security and Freedom in
Cyberspace
Professor Abdul Paliwala
University of Warwick
a.paliwala@warwick.ac.uk
• We (Cyberspace) must declare our virtual selves immune to
your sovereignty…We will spread ourselves across the planet
so that no-one can arrest our thoughts…May it be more
humane and fair than the world your governments have
made before. Barlow A Declaration of Independence Cyberspace 1996
• Failing to anticipate how authoritarian governments would
respond to the Internet, cyber-utopians did not predict how
useful it would prove for propaganda purposes, how
masterfully dictators would learn to use it for surveillance,
and how sophisticated modern systems of Internet
censorship would become. Instead they stuck to a populist
account of technology empowers the people, who,
oppressed by years of authoritarian rule, will inevitably rebel,
mobilizing themselves through text messages, Facebook,
Twitter, and whatever new tool comes along next year.”
• Morozov The Net Delusion2011 xiv
Twitter, Facebook amplified
street protests in Egypt,
allowing for growth of
community support
Wael Ghonim, the Google marketing
manager who became one face of the
protest movement after his arrest,
tweeted his pride and joy.
"They lied at us, told us Egypt died 30
years ago, but millions of Egyptians
decided to search and they found their
country in 18 days," he wrote on Twitter.
Tunisia & Egypt
• Tunisia through its ATI centralised the contol of
internet traffic - excessive amounts of blocking
websites and monitoring email – but not
shutdown
• Hackers attacked the Tunisian ATI and hackbombed it
• Egypt laxer system of internet regulation; But
soft surveillance leading to draconian measures
against dissenting bloggers. Led to total
shutdown
Argument
1. That there is a Netizen culture which promotes a species of
freedom.
2. Corrective to Utopian Hype = techno-scientific mode which may be
dominated by new types of techno- or cyber-capital
3. Netizen culture v. techno-science results in conflict between open,
neutral and democratic governance of the internet eg ISOC IEFT and
relatively closed organisations such as the W3C Consortium and
ICANN.
4. Internet is increasingly affected by surveillance and control by
governments and supra-state institutions in the interests of security.
5. That while some private sector eg Google idealises internet
freedom, ultimately they succumb to the security interests of the
state.
6. That inspite of these great limitations, Netizen culture constitutes
resistance against authoritarian interests of states and big
corporations
1. Netizen culture = species of freedom.
• People who care about Usenet and the bigger
Net and work towards building the
cooperative and collective nature which
benefits the larger world Hauben
2. Netizen culture cf Utopian hype:
New dominance of Techno-Science
• Utopian hype Netizen Power is new revolutionary
multitude
• Internet has a dual origin in military ARPANET and later
freer hacker Netizenship culture
• Baxi = Techno-Scientific Mode of Production
New mode dominated by new forms of capital
while new technology produces new modes of
production, accompanying millenial libertarian
ideologies likely to disguise new modes of domination.
• The Network Information Society may be as or more
empowering of state and business as of Netizenship
3. Governance of the Internet
Open v Closed cultures
Technical Infrastructure: Internet Society - Internet
Engineering Task Force – Internet Research Task
Force –– Open Culture
Administrative and Property: World Wide Web Consortium – www
regulation
ICANN – Intellectual Property Rights vs Free and Open Source
Behaviour
Netizen Self-Governance
Service Provider Codes
State Regulation – national security interests
WSIS – Declaration of Principles – Internet Governance Forum
4. National Security: “Wholesale Taming of
Cyberspace”
• CIA Director George Tenet:
I know that these actions would be
controversial in this age where we still think
the Internet is a free and open society with no
control or accountability. But, ultimately, the
Wild West must give way to governance and
control.
China - Cheung
Building on this bifurcated scheme of direct
control and censorship by the state, and
indirect discipline and surveillance by nonstate actors, the Chinese government has
successfully created a culture of selfcensorship not only among its citizens, but
also by co-opting local and foreign
investors. These capitalists duly comply
with the general wishes of the government,
and also act on its behalf as non-state
actors.
US – Hilary Clinton
So let us recommit ourselves to
this cause. Let us make these
technologies a force for real
progress the world over. And
let us go forward together to
champion these freedoms for
our time, for our young people
who deserve every opportunity
we can give them.
US - Security Culture
• Patriot Act – communication surveillance, isp
‘voluntary’ cooperation + defence against civil suits
• Homeland Security Act – information across
government departments
• The National Counter Terrorism Center Guidelines
reminiscent of Bush Administration’s attemptedTotal
Information Awareness.
• Wikileaks
– calls for Assange’s prosecution under the Espionage Act,
– Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks
– Homeld Sec Comtee call to stop hosting or financial
services
– Assange prosecution for sexual assault in Sweden,
Manning in US
When Technology Intrudes
5. JANUS Faced
Corporate Culture
In Chinese Push
For Surveillance,
An American Tie
As The Chinese government
forges ahead on a multibilliondollar effort to blanket
the country with surveillance
cameras, at least one American company
stands to profit: Bain Capital,
the private equity firm founded by
Mitt Romney, a leading candidate for
the Republican presidential nomination
in the United states.
6. Netizen Resistance Culture v.
Authoritarian state & Corporations
• Circumvent – Proxy, Tunnelling, Onion
Routing, Google Translate (Calanan 2011).
• Reasons for Survival
– Open code of Internet resulted in Open ideology
– Global cyberspace supported by global
cosmopolitanism
– US internet home has strong Rule of Law culture
Northern Lights? Iceland’s Modern
Media Initiative
• Iceland will become
the inverse of a tax
haven; by offering
journalists and
publishers some of the
most powerful
protections for free
speech and
investigative
journalism in the
world. Tax havens aim
is to make everything
opaque. Our aim is to
make everything
transparent.
http://immi.is/Icelandi
c_Modern_Media_Initi
ative