Internet Regulation

In Chapter 7 of Cass Sunstein’s Republic 2.0 he discusses regulation of the Internet. In the chapter he argues that there shouldn’t be any Internet regulation because the Internet should be considered a public sphere, and the information is public space.

I find this argument to be severely flawed because the Internet is far from a public sphere. The only real thing that’s public about the Internet is the fact that anyone with access to it can generate content. Businesses, marketers, and advertisers have capitalized the Internet as a way of receiving enormous revenues. There’s an extreme barrier to entry for Internet access, most notably high subscription fees to service providers.

To me, a deregulated public sphere is akin to asking for blanket free speech protection. In order for a meeting, or public gathering (protest, etc) to be protected by free speech it has to be on public property. The Internet, which serves the private interests of businesses, is not public property, or a public sphere, and therefore should be regulated accordingly.

Deregulation and lack of oversight leads to severe problems. I respect freedom of speech protection, and as a journalism student I know its necessity. However, comprehensive deregulation of the Internet would cause far more problems than benefits. There certainly are areas where regulation, or government involvement is unnecessary. For example, the Library of Congress is archiving all tweets on Twitter. I find this to be extremely pointless and a colossal waste of time and resources.

All in all, there needs to be Internet regulation. Freedom of speech, and its protection, should remain as is, but a deregulated Internet is asking for problems. One needs to look no further than the 2008 financial crisis to know that deregulation is absolutely not the answer.