FIXING THE INTERNET What does this mean?

In  2020-2022, the internet played a dramatic role in communication of misinformation, and coordination of activities that threatened the stability of our political system.  There have been hearings in congress confronting specific leaders of internet companies,  with no intelligent response, and a general tendency across the society to blame the companies and the "internet" in general for current problems.  If the internet  is the problem then it should be possible to analyze the issues and fix them.  This is explored in this and several succeeding posts.

What is the "internet"?  A communication system.  A network of connections between computers managed by other computers that transfer messages according to specific addresses.  The idea to connect a group of computers to provide interaction between users was developed by a research arm of the US Dept of Defense ARPA (now DARPA) in 1969.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet   https://www.internetsociety.org/internet/history-internet/brief-history-internet/   To achieve this goal,  four elements are needed: 1) a group of computers/users to connect, 2) wires to transmit digital signals from one unit to another, (or some other method), 3) a system of addresses the switching computer uses to direct the messages, and 4) a program that performs the switching functions and sending the messages to the correct locations.  These addresses or "domains" are assigned by ICANN and have yearly renewal fees.  (Some domain names are so favorable to businesses that they command high prices.) 

Everything else is a  human elaboration of the potential that these elements provide.  Three expansions of the "internet" are important: 1) the "world wide web" (= www.) (1989-90) is a change in the method of addressing associated with expanding the digital content from purely text symbols to audiovisual information, and "hypertext", the placement of addresses within documents to other addresses.  2) This was associated with new user programs,  "browsers", to search and navigate the web more easily.  A vast expansion in the number of nodes/users occurred between 1980 and the present.  This has required a new address system with more capacity to address the increasing number of nodes. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6 ).  and 3) Organizations manage the cable/computer systems that transmit the information globally.  The network of cables/computers is not owned or controlled by one country or company. (https://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/who-owns-internet1.htm )  But several major companies have part responsibility, the "upstream providers" including UUNET, Level 3, Verizon, AT&T, Qwest, Sprint, IBM.  Most of these are telecommunications companies in the US, and this poses interesting questions about management of the system.  These companies have providers that deliver communication to local sites,  but the "upstream" is open to all users (at least in theory) and none of them has full control, and so must work with the others to get access to the entire system.  These companies do not appear to exert any control over the distribution of messages in their networks,  and censoring, as in China, occurs at the entry points for data within the country's networks.  The main organization and linkage of the internet system is not regulated or controlled by any single country.  The internet is a complex communication system which delivers digital messages between addresses owned by users along world wide networks, managed by private companies.  The sending and receiving of these messages is controlled by local users with computer programs, browsers, etc. that manage the creation, search, and distribution onto the web. That is the definition of the operations of the  internet. 

The development of the world wide web and browsers allows all types of digital audio-visual information to be sent from one sender to one or more receivers selectively, individualized management of distribution of messages.  Every address/user is capable of sending all the information and types of messages it wishes to send. Every address/user is capable of receiving all the information and types of messages it wishes to receive.  The types of information sent require high rates of data flow as when movies or live TV etc are transmitted in real time.  Not all users have the data flow capacity to receive this,  but networks have been expanding to meet this demand.  (All messages are data encoded digitally, in a different encoding method from tv video digital encoding or radio transmission, which were previous forms of information transfer that were not point to point,  but point to group.)  Every message includes both content and data on sender and receiver.  This transmission data often is as valuable as the message content to businesses or other users.

Portals:  The switching computers that manage sending messages are capable of recognizing portals:  addresses which require additional codes for transmission,  or addresses that favor links to specific types of information.  The ability to control access allows charging for access (paywalls) and also provides the basis for securing sites from intrusion for data access. (Hacking)   Portals provide control of flow in and out for various uses:  content creation,  secrecy,  fee for use of portal, etc.  These features of the internet are created by human users,  not the structure per se.   Any user may block access to his site from other sites,  but the origin may be hidden or disguised. The following issues have emerged as key problems,  each of which requires solution(s).

ISSUE #1 Data content: ownership.  Whose data is it?  Does the sender own the data sent?  Receiver?  Jointly?  Is the data secure?  Is it encoded transmission by VPN?  Is the node protected by a "firewall"?   Portals allow some control,  but even youtube has no complete ability to control flow.  Messages may be encoded (as when adding CRM)  to prevent duplication,  etc.  Piracy of digital data has been a continuing issue, on internet or other modes (CDs) and programs like "bit torrent" were widely available for pirating by individuals, but have generally been suppressed.

ISSUE #2: PRIVACY AND SECURITY The data associated with transmission and reception is used by the switching computer system and can be stored for use by either node.   How much control does the sender have in limiting this information?  Data about content, sender, and receiver are frequently sold by "social media" companies as the basis for personalized advertising, and a lucrative business. Specific transmission programs ("cookies") are added to transmitted messages in order to monitor the activity of the receiver.  These are hacking into your computer to gain information access acknowledged by the sender at times, and recent public reaction has led to some states in US requiring notification  and permission for cookies.  The user can always prevent or delete cookie access,  but many commercial nodes will not operate without accepting them.  In addition to marketing,  the data provides information on activities that may involve illegal actions and be the basis for criminal prosecution.  Therefore the extent of law enforcement search is also an issue.   Networks can hide the source of the transmission.  Some sites specifically block access to search engine discovery of their addresses,  to make them inaccessible, i.e. DARK WEB.

ISSUE #3: DATA CONTENT: REAL INFORMATION AND ILLEGAL INFORMATION  Is the data sent from a node "real" or "true"?  There is no basis for authenticity beyond knowing the sender, and that the message has not been corrupted. There is no way to ensure the data is true, any more than ensuring a person's direct speech is true.  Why people expect this to be different on the Internet is a great mystery.  It appears that public transmission carries with it assumptions about messages carried over from print and TV media of previous eras; these media sources went to great lengths to support editorial claims that they were unbiased.  The same process occurs on the internet complicated by the assumption that the data is coming from "someone I know" and "they are telling the truth".  Real people commit fraud everyday in person or over media, and sometimes get away with it.

ISSUE #4: FINANCIAL Can you make money from the internet?  Can someone steal money from you? The node to node access allows a more  detailed advertising platform than any other medium.  Direct commerce from node to node is also possible.  Producing content and posting it along with advertising is one model, developed by Youtube.  Selling location reference data to business sites is the method, developed by Google Maps.  Search engines develop complex algorithms to favor sites in order of discovery and charge them to be favored in this way.  These are a few of the many possible legal methods of internet business.  Stealing money occurs by selling a nonexistent product and collecting money without delivery;  the more frequent method is hacking or phishing for personal information that allows access to  financial data that can be ysed to steal assets.  Money is digital.  Most savings and holdings are in the form of digital accounts.  Protection of this information is protection of your money,  and vice versa.  Tarnoff blames the economics of the internet for its problem and offers the plan to make it something like a public utility.  I don't that that addresses all the issues.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/27/opinion/technology/what-would-an-egalitarian-internet-actually-look-like.html

ISSUE #5 DATA CONTENT: The political and social impact of the internet. The great paradox of the internet is its apparent ability to unite different individuals to create a more diverse and socially balanced culture.  Tart calls the group agreement of certain perceptions "consensus consciousness",  a social construct.  Access to internet expands this construct,  but also enhances the isolation and silo-ing of subgroups.  This "internet clanning" can be compared to an organization like the original Klan, a feature of human activity enhanced by the net in ways not anticipated.  This has been utilized for political organization,  and for non political activities like "flash mobs" and impromptu musical performances.   The government  attempts to put the responsibility for control onto the private access companies;  ironic because the US government intervenes in other countries' rebellions, but is not happy with internal divisions.

ISSUE #6 PARTICIPATION what happens to the person who participates online, how are they changed or managed by the interaction, and sites they engage?  Is this influenced by age?  Is it more important with children?  Is there internet addiction? How can individuals manage their use of the interaction?    How should this use be controlled by each person?   Is it possible to remove yourself from the internet once you have entered?  All these issues were drastically exaggerated by the Covid pandemic when an un-accoutable expansion of internet use and interaction occurred to replace direct in person interaction.

Each of these topics will be addressed in a separate posting.  But there is a clear underlying theme:  The fundamental nature of the organization of the internet is the control by each node.  When China or other countries attempt to interfere with exchange of information,  government computers must block messages for control,  and draconian punishments are needed to limit or control diffusion of information.  In a democratic country with a constitutional protection of free speech,  the government definition of "dangerous speech" or "treason speech" is  difficult to define and manage.  Trying to offload this task onto non-governmental companies avoids the political responsibility and will ultimately fail, as it has so far.  Individual behavior on the internet must have legal consequences as speech does in public discourse,  and anonymous  messages of hidden origin must be suppressed.  In a true democracy,  only individual responsibility and legal recourse can control the safety of the system.  The EFF (https://www.eff.org/ ) is organized to safeguard individual rights with varying success,  but the issue of collective safety of the society has no obvious protector.  Both Brookings and Heritage foundations have explored positions on this issue.

https://www.brookings.edu/research/why-protecting-privacy-is-a-losing-game-today-and-how-to-change-the-game/

https://www.heritage.org/press/heritage-foundation-responds-preventing-online-censorship-executive-order

REFS

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/oct/22/what-is-the-internet-13-key-questions-answered

https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/12/18259700/world-wide-wide-turns-30-www-anniversary-favorite-sites

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jul/15/how-the-internet-was-invented-1976-arpa-kahn-cerf

https://starry.com/blog/inside-the-internet/what-was-the-first-web-browser