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The Political Tilt Of The Internet
by Drew Clark
Only four years ago, during the 2000 presidential campaign, author Pauline Borsook declared in her book "Cyberselfish" that the Internet is "terribly libertarian." But one presidential election cycle later, the fast-moving technology industry has seen many revolutions, and much has changed about the political temperature of cyberspace.
The sector has gone from boom to bust and slowly back to economic strength. Corporate scandals at Enron and MCI led to criticisms of executive compensation and the employee stock options so cherished by Silicon Valley. Microsoft's high-profile antitrust trials appeared to end any industry hesitancy to lobby in Washington, if for no other reason than self-defense. And now the reality of digital convergence is pushing technology stalwarts like Cisco Systems and Intel to navigate their way through the regulatory shoals of telecommunications policy.
While the technology industry was officially bipartisan in 2000, and is again in 2004, George W. Bush captured the hearts of many leading players who steered early cash into his coffers during that campaign. But now four years later, some in cyberspace are wondering what four more years of President Bush would mean for the future of science, technology, innovation and civil liberties.
The Bush Agenda
In his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in New York on Thursday, Bush did not mention issues like the high-speed Internet, privacy and stock options that are important to the technology industry. Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry did not mention them, either -- the only "dot-com" reference in both speeches were to the candidates' respective Web sites -- but Kerry's text culminated with praise for science and innovation, including the digitization of information by computer entrepreneurs.
Technology executives gathered at the Republican convention wanted some kind of reference to the president's view that companies should not have to treat stock options as expenses on their balance sheets. In July, the House passed a bill that would bar the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) from issuing just such a regulation.
FASB is pressing to implement the rule before the end of the year. But Bush has remained silent as his Securities and Exchange Commission chief refuses to intervene in the FASB crackdown. The Republican platform also did not have a reference to options.
At a Wednesday reception in New York, California Delegate Jim Cunneen, the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce representing the Silicon Valley area and a former tech company executive, argued that while Bush has not jumped into the political fray, his administration has created an environment favorable to industry's cause as pushed by groups like TechNet.
"We're going to get this taken care of," TechNet President Rick White promised the executives about efforts to block FASB's stock-options rule.
Republican telecommunications executives who favor ending rules that would require Bell companies to share lines with competitors also may be heartened by the party's platform, which endorsed those deregulatory policies pushed by FCC Chairman Michael Powell. More broadly, technology innovators were pleased that the GOP platform praised the administration for its trade policies and tax cuts, and for "nearly doubling the amount of spectrum available for innovative wireless broadband applications."
A Shifting Tide For Libertarians?
But many Internet-savvy commentators who publish Web logs, online journals more commonly known as blogs, are not happy with current administration policies. And among the "cybertarians" who were among the first to popularize blogs, many are defecting Bush in droves.
Some point to privacy issues in the wake of anti-terrorism laws. One of the most influential Internet pioneers drawn to the Kerry camp is John Perry Barlow, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He was dubbed the "Thomas Jefferson of cyberspace" for his 1996 declaration of the Internet's independence and until recently had pushed the libertarian line.
"I have grave misgivings about John Kerry, but I certainly don't have misgivings about Kerry that equal the terror I have about another four years of Bush," Barlow said in an interview in Reason Magazine's August edition, referring particularly to issues of civil liberties.
"Until just a few months ago ... I felt there was more room for libertarian thought inside the Republican Party," Barlow told the magazine. "There are libertarian wings in both the Democratic and Republican parties, and in the past I found it most effective to be inside the Republican Party acting as a libertarian. But I've switched."
Barlow was also in New York for the Republican National Convention, but he "marched" on the side of the protesters. He reported on his blog about his participation in a "bike mob" protest the Friday before the convention, declaring it "an irresistible river of anarchic order." He suggested biking to the polls against Bush.
As at the Democratic National Convention in Boston, Republicans credentialed a group of bloggers to report and comment on their observations of the proceedings. But while the blogs at each convention tended not to stray far from the party line, at the Republican convention, official bloggers had an organized counterpart: the "Progressive Tourist Bureau."
At a converted art studio, the bureau housed booths for left-wing activists and served as a gathering point and watering hole for protesters, Democrats and non-credentialed bloggers. Joe Trippi, the tech-savvy head of the failed presidential campaign of Democrat Howard Dean, showed up every night of the convention.
The 'Fundamentally Democratic' Internet
David Alpert, an activist blogger who directs the Web site cosmpolity.org and helped create the center, said he believes the tenor of cyberspace is changing.
"The Internet has a libertarian streak, but really it is more fundamentally Democratic," he said, because they "also know there is a danger from powerful institutions." He also cited the concern about privacy, a recurring issue among denizens of cyberspace. Another key issue -- and one on which neither Democrats nor Republicans favor the cybertarian view -- is opposition to copyright restrictions that impose technological limits on what innovators or Web speakers may do.
Alpert conceded that his and other activists' anti-Bush views are colored as much by issues like the war in Iraq as by technology-related issues. But he said Kerry would be better than Bush for the future of innovation.
"The Internet is about an innovative philosophy of not having a lot of restrictions on what people can do," he said, adding that while Republicans frequently voice that rhetoric, they then favor entrenched industries like energy or telecommunications. Democrats, he said, are "good about encouraging technology."
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