In response to Christopher Hitchens latest article about Wikileaks.
http://www.slate.com/id/2276857/
I see that US Senator Joe Lieberman suggests New York Times could be investigated, plus many other News Org's
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/07/wikileaks-joe-lieberman-new-york-times-investigated
This is the first time this new technology called the internet has been tested.
With the advent of Web 2.0 and social media's growth over the last 3 to 5 years the world is entirely a different place, especially when it comes to News.
The speed to which news is gathered and distributed via social media is beyond the (a) scope of established News Org's (b) threatening established News Org's (c) Now integral to existing News Org's survival in the Digital Age.
Now we have US Senators calling for established News Org's to be investigated over their relationship with wikileaks. This shows that the people in power have absolutely no idea about contemporary media in 2010.
The new social web has provided us with two primary sites that distribute information faster than ever seen, now a scoops longevity can be measured in only seconds, such is the power of twitter and facebook. These two entities have distributed more information about the News Orgs listed in the above article in the last 2 weeks, then established News Orgs can hope to distribute in 10 years.
Are Twitter and Facebook now to be investigated along with the New York Times and Others? Are the people disseminating this information across Web 2.0 sites to be investigated?
What wikileaks has bought to the consciousness of the people in power , is the power of those people without any power joined together via Web 2.0 , and their inability via draconian non digital time laws to redress.
What pressure are the social networks under? especially now that the established News Media is under attack?
From what Ive seen of Zuckerberg, his fundamental position is that information should be open. Which is why his company has consistently been under pressure about privacy. What are his options if he is against
any form of censorship on his website? How will his community react to him being required to censor any information about wikileaks? His only option is to comply or move his company and its infrastructure to another country. Though I think its apparent that Facebook has become to large to be able to find Non Us services to cope with the size of his business.
Similarly with Twitter, it appears that they are alread censoring their trends in relation to wikileaks. How would the tiwtterverse react to any censorship pressure ?
Which brings us of course to Google. The main storer and distributor of millions and millions of entries about wikileaks. If you want to find the insurance cables? where do you go? Google will tell you were they are in the blink of an eye. Sure they can fight with china and move their services out of that country. Do they have any options other than censorship if the people in power decide to legislate against the distribution of
wikileaks material? The Google infrusture is one that has become the biggest power consuming company in the world, where they own their own power stations. Are they in a position to move to other countries that allow them to do business as they have done since inception? In my opinion their growth has limited them to the US.
It is Net Neutrality that is being tested right now wikileaks is just the catalyst for it.
My fear is that there will be new regulations put in place by people who's vintage has allocated them to using it only for email and simple blog entries and who do not understand anything about Web 2.0 let alone
where the net is heading in the near future. Sadly I have now put my hero Christopher Hitchens into this category after reading his latest article on it.
There are strong arguments on both sides of this debate, though I think the main argument points are being overlooked when what is happening right in front of our eyes now will / may determine the future of the internet.
Pete
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