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4 - Legal Immunity

from Part I - A Lawless Internet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2019

Nicolas P. Suzor
Affiliation:
Queensland University of Technology School of Law and Digital Media Research Centre
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Summary

Technology companies are the sheriffs of what used to be the wild west of the internet. In the 1990s, when the internet was young, the imagery of the western frontier really seemed like a good analogy. The internet seemed to radically decentralize power: no longer could massive publishers or broadcasters control the media; anyone could be a publisher and get their message out.1 The internet seemed inherently designed to preserve the freedom of individuals. It seemed impossible to enforce laws against the apparently anonymous masses of internet users distributed around the world. The commercial internet grew out of a military design that avoided single points of failure and was resilient against both nuclear attack and interference by hostile governments.2

Type
Chapter
Information
Lawless
The Secret Rules That Govern Our Digital Lives
, pp. 43 - 58
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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