Rebecca MacKinnon, Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation and co-founder of Global Voices Online, held a keynote at the second day of the research symposium on „Consent of the Networked: The future of freedom in the Internet age".
During a session break she could spare some minutes to get into a conversation with Jeanette Hofmann. [Full length: 15:51] Reflecting on her professional and academic background, Rebecca depicts what has led her to moving away from traditional journalism as a CNN correspondent in China and Japan and becoming more interested in pursuing research on civic engagement, freedom of expression and the role of private companies in matters of censorship in the internet.
In particular the conversation highlights the latter point: the relationship and interplay between private and public spheres and the hybrid environment for freedom of information which is thereby enacted [4:50]. Censorship in the internet age depends to a strong extent on the nation, and as in the case of China occurs very directly. But as Rebecca has also observed, private companies in western industries censor information in certain ways indirectly, due to their private set of rules and terms. In the case of social networks this hybrid character is quite obvious, both point out [8:50]. Serving more and more as public utilities the question is raised by Jeanette in which way public involvement in formatting the rules of social networks or internet intermediaries in general is even more needed [9:45]. Governance models and multi-stakeholder approaches could be promising mechanisms to manage those hybrid environments. Finally Rebecca lets us know about her future plans and topics she wants to pursue next [12:30].

свернуть