Who Owns The Net?

Submitted by Maclane Horton on May 15, 2017

Is ICANN the big boss ?

Or is it the phone companies and mobile networks?

Or maybe multinational domains like Google?

Or perhaps it's really the advertisers who call the shots?

And what about the governments, closing down sites with the “Investigatory Powers Act 2016,” unless you just count them as puppets of the bourgeoisie?

I've been told that with tricks like VPN you can be free from establishment control. Somehow I don't buy it. Maybe a few people can get away with it - like passing notes in class - but it doesn't sound to me like a mass audience.

I expect that in the 15th century, when they heard about the printing press, political activists went about rejoicing that the media stranglehold of princes and priests was broken. Poor deluded militants. And today. Is there still no joy in Mudville? Maybe next time!

So why don't they? Why don't the establishment who own the internet take control? Can't they even stop ransomware cyber attacks? And if, even if, they really can't stop the criminals and the crazies, why do they appear to let us lefties have free rein?

Why don't they stop us? I expect you've made a guess – I have. I guess it's because we're pussy cats. And nobody's afraid of pussy cats. Maybe they think we're decorative. Purr, baby, purr.

Khawaga

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Khawaga on May 15, 2017

I don't think I get the point of your post. Unless it is that posting online is not really threatening, but that seems just to self-evident for you to make a post about it,

If you're interested in "who controls the internet", I recommend reading Alexander Galloway's Protocol: How Control Exists After Decentralization (and the critiques that followed; one of the best ones more or less pointed to that ICANN and those that own the physical infrastructure "owns" the internet). Then again, it's not like you can actually take control of the internet, which is a fantasy similar to the one that we can bend nature to our will. Sure, you can block access to it and you can take advantage of the network (i.e. exploits), but total control is impossible (unless you're talking about control in the sense that Galloway/Deleuze would refer to it).

Maclane Horton

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Maclane Horton on May 15, 2017

Last summer while we were staying in France a friend from Belgium came to visit. He picked up a copy of an Irish communist newspaper that was lying on a table. He was surprised that I managed to have it forwarded to France and that it was a weekly.

After leafing through it he remarked, “They talk about socialism and revolution, but never seem to get anywhere.”

I remember that I replied glibly, “Some people say that the hope for the future is the internet.”

Having now become rather disabused of that hope, I suppose the point of the post was a naïve idea that somebody might show me how my glib reply was in fact true.

Mind you I still wake up every morning and look out the window to see if capitalism has collapsed.

Khawaga

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Khawaga on May 15, 2017

I remember that I replied glibly, “Some people say that the hope for the future is the internet.”

I remember many saying this in the 90s. I even said that a few times.

Having now become rather disabused of that hope, I suppose the point of the post was a naïve idea that somebody might show me how my glib reply was in fact true.

Nah, like the radio, TV, printing press, casette tapes and so on, no technology will save us. As Heidegger said, only a God can ;)

el psy congroo

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by el psy congroo on May 16, 2017

the Internet is a CIA-created mind control apparatus established as a response to Sputnik -- it's become perhaps one of the most vital organs of Capital and ideology today, besides the obvious ones

Khawaga

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Khawaga on May 16, 2017

Wrong again, El Psy. You need to get your facts straight.

Fleur

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Fleur on May 16, 2017

I think you're confusing the internet with Sesame Street.

el psy congroo

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by el psy congroo on May 17, 2017

Explain this then.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macy_conferences
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Murray#Harvard_human_experiments
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPANET

el psy congroo

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by el psy congroo on May 17, 2017

Also, fuck this playing the ball shit. More like playing favorites!

Steven.

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Steven. on May 17, 2017

el psy congroo

Also, fuck this playing the ball shit. More like playing favorites!

That was "playing the ball" because it wasn't insulting you, it was pointing out what you said was just nonsense with no basis in fact, which was entirely accurate. I mean apart from the fact that it's paranoid rubbish, the idea that the CIA would be competent enough to develop the internet is just laughable

el psy congroo

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by el psy congroo on May 18, 2017

Shit sorry you're right it's the Department of Defense not the CIA

'The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was an early packet switching network and the first network to implement the protocol suite TCP/IP. Both technologies became the technical foundation of the Internet. ARPANET was initially funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the United States Department of Defense.'

el psy congroo

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by el psy congroo on May 18, 2017

Just watch Das Netz (2003)

They break it down well and interview the people involved

radicalgraffiti

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by radicalgraffiti on May 18, 2017

el psy congroo

the Internet is a CIA-created mind control apparatus established as a response to Sputnik -- it's become perhaps one of the most vital organs of Capital and ideology today, besides the obvious ones

el psy congroo

Explain this then.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macy_conferences
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Murray#Harvard_human_experiments
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPANET

el psy congroo

Also, fuck this playing the ball shit. More like playing favorites!

i cant tell if your seriously arguing that the internet is a "cia mind control apparatus" or this is some kind of joke?

i guess it makes sense considering you name

Khawaga

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Khawaga on May 18, 2017

Shit sorry you're right it's the Department of Defense not the CIA

It's aight. At least you read up on it and corrected yourself, not many does that in this internet age. Paul Baran's paper on distributed networks (that he wrote while working for the RAND Corporation) is also key to the history of the internet and why the US military wanted to build one. The internet was supposed to be a military technology for maintaining the chain of command even after a nuclear strike (but no mind control); hence why the theory of distributed networks was important (even though the internet did not become a distributed network).

Craftwork

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Craftwork on May 18, 2017

Who owns the net?

Bob Avakian.

el psy congroo

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by el psy congroo on May 18, 2017

Bonus points for anyone that connect Khawaga's comments to Adorno's The Authoritarian Personality...

Re: radicalgraf -- I was being stupid but as Khawaga points out, fact stands that it is a military technology.

el psy congroo

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by el psy congroo on May 18, 2017

Also, does anyone dispute this part of what I said earlier?

it's become perhaps one of the most vital organs of Capital and ideology today, besides the obvious one

Khawaga

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Khawaga on May 18, 2017

Is it necessary to point out that a bucket is a bucket?

Zanthorus

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Zanthorus on May 26, 2017

el psy congroo

the Internet is a CIA-created mind control apparatus established as a response to Sputnik -- it's become perhaps one of the most vital organs of Capital and ideology today, besides the obvious ones

I guess, since I was introduced to Marxism first via the net, that Marxism is also part of the CIA's mind control apparatus.

el psy congroo

6 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by el psy congroo on May 27, 2017

that analogy is total shit

el psy congroo

6 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by el psy congroo on May 27, 2017

Marxism is has definitely been recuperated by the bourgeoisie tho

radicalgraffiti

6 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by radicalgraffiti on May 27, 2017

el psy congroo

Also, does anyone dispute this part of what I said earlier?

it's become perhaps one of the most vital organs of Capital and ideology today, besides the obvious one

well ships and roads are vital to capital, farming is vital to capitalism, writing and maths are vital to capitalism. so i'm not sure what your point is

Khawaga

6 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Khawaga on May 27, 2017

He doesn't have a point, hence why he tries so hard to score one.

el psy congroo

6 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by el psy congroo on May 28, 2017

Nah...You're wrong about that K. My point is the internet is so vital if you blew up all the undersea cables and took it down for a long period of time the markets would surely crash or collapse completely in some places

el psy congroo

6 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by el psy congroo on May 28, 2017

You can't blow up every road....Every ideology...But the internet is just a handful of cables in international waters

el psy congroo

6 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by el psy congroo on May 28, 2017

Not to mention the prospects of attack methods like wanna cry

Khawaga

6 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Khawaga on May 28, 2017

Wow, wrong again. Did you even bother to read up on why the internet was created? Sure, you can cut some cables but that won't shut off the entire internet.

jef costello

6 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by jef costello on May 29, 2017

Khawaga

Wow, wrong again. Did you even bother to read up on why the internet was created? Sure, you can cut some cables but that won't shut off the entire internet.

They'd work around it pretty quickly but it is possible with a co-ordinated attack on weak points, which could be pretty low tech. The middle east has relatively fewer cables so the cuts have a bigger effects.

But that has nothing to do with 'who owns the internet' you can disrupt the power grid, but it doesn't mean that you own it.

radicalgraffiti

6 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by radicalgraffiti on May 29, 2017

heres a map of the subsea internet cables http://www.submarinecablemap.com/

and this is an article about how the internet works, in terms of the infrastructure involved, including how they repair broken cables
https://arstechnica.co.uk/information-technology/2016/05/how-the-internet-works-submarine-cables-data-centres-last-mile/

and not all the internet is wired https://arstechnica.co.uk/information-technology/2016/11/private-microwave-networks-financial-hft/ (ok this isn't technically internet, but it relates to the idea the markets would crash)

there is also satellite based internet, its currently slower and has more latency than fibre, but theres plans to improve that
https://arstechnica.co.uk/information-technology/2016/11/spacex-plans-worldwide-satellite-internet-with-low-latency-gigabit-speed/

petey

6 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by petey on May 29, 2017

radicalgraffiti

heres a map of the subsea internet cables http://www.submarinecablemap.com/

wow!
also, I've never seen RI and MA referred to as the "outer lands" before.