Julian Assange was interviewed via Skype during a session at the 2014 SXSW Interactive.
In my review of last year’s SXSW themes (“Restraint”) I raised the question as to whether the party that has been our experience of the Internet since its beginnings is over. Based on what I heard on Day 2 of SXSW Interactive, if the party is not over, it is certainly winding down.
A quick glance of this year’s SXSW program tells the story. Addresses by Julian Assange and Edward Snowden from their respective places of exile. A session on Cyberwar by Brooking Institutes Fellow P.W. Singer. An entire program track devoted to online privacy and security, including a session that explores the ramifications of the Supreme Court’s recent decision against Net Neutrality. At a conference that in the past has been all about emerging innovations and amazing possibilities leveraging the Internet we are hearing stories of restriction and legislation amidst a climate of fear of an uncertain online future.
My Day 2 opened with a talk by cybersecurity journalist Kim Zetter whose book Countdown to Zero Day explores the first known act of Cyberwar, which was carried out by the United States against Iran’s uranium enrichment program. The U.N. discovered the activity when their careful observations of Iran’s enrichment program showed inefficiencies and abnormal equipment failure. These acts of cyberwarfare, carried out over a period of years in deep secrecy, were authorized by George W. Bush and intensified by Barack Obama. While effective in quietly stalling Iran’s nuclear program without using the weapons of traditional warfare, the revelation of these cyberattacks inspired online fear by demonstrating the capability of nations, and potentially other organizations, to carry out these only before theorized attacks.
This session was followed by a virtual conversation via Skype with Julian Assange of Wikileaks from the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he has essentially been a prisoner for the past year. Assange raised the spectre of the increasing power of the State in democratic nations in ways that undermine the tenets of classical liberalism. The ability of nation-states to leverage developing technologies for surveillance of its citizens – and even its trusted allies – imagines a new, efficient form of totalitarianism that fuels social paranoia about passing information through the Internet.
Brooking Institutes Fellow P. W. Singer, author of Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know, followed, expressing his legitimate concern that the Internet as we know it may soon be gone under the weight of three current phenomena. First, the ignorance of legislators about technology and their false perceptions about the threat of cyberattacks. Second, the appeal of CEOs to these policymakers to do something about rampant cybercrime. Third, the acquiescence and victim mentality of “We the People” in the face of cyber security concerns. As Singer argues in his book, unless an informed public and corporations take responsibility for exercising best practices and improving cybersecurity, legislation will emerge that may place severe restrictions on the Internet.
The sum of these sessions (and others yet to be held) points to the reality that the party may be over. Net Neutrality is in jeopardy. People desperately want to reclaim some sense of privacy (SnapChat, Whisper or Secret, anyone?). People and companies feel terribly insecure online. Fear is ruling the roost, and a Congress that is woefully underprepared is being asked to provide direction and cybersecurity solutions. The prospect here for the future of an open Internet certainly seems grim.
What do you think? Are you feeling the fears expressed in these sessions?