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Emerging Internet Regulation Trends
In mid-2008, Rasmussen conducted a poll to find out how Americans felt about Internet regulation. Almost half said that they thought the government should regulate the Internet in much the same way that it regulates television and radio.
This trend toward government regulation of the Internet is due to fears about children being exposed to online violence or pornography and abuse by social networking predators.
A Brief Review of Censorship.
Censorship of Internet content is on the rise, and it is not just limited to communist China anymore. For example, in the UK, a page wtihin Wikipedia (and in some instances, the entire Wikipedia site) was blocked because of a complaint filed with a quasi-governmental agency known as the IWF. An album cover was viewed as offensive and inappropriate. Since it was a photo of a physical good, there was the possibility that Amazon’s US shopping and auction content would be blocked from UK viewers.
Also in the censorship arena is the increasing volume of politicians who are complaining about blogs not correctly reporting the facts about their campaigns or other political events. The regulatory environment may be further impacted by journalists and mainstream media who are seeing online content take a bite out of their readership and sales. While news and political reporting are not currently regulated in the United States, it would not be surprising if politicians begin to talk about licensing requirements or some form of authority ranking for blog owners and other online reporters.
Nationwide Filtering.
If it becomes law, Australia’s ‘great firewall’ will be the most restrictive mandatory government control of the Internet in the world’s democratic countries. Ostensibly for filtering out child pornography, the firewall has fueled intense debate, including free speech arguments. The government reportedly will ban at least 1300 websites, but it has not disclosed exactly what sites are on the banned list. Internet speeds are reduced by up to 86% but despite this, the filtering is not 100% accurate and is therefore not effective.
Internet Taxes.
In the US, there have been rumors about a federal Internet tax for many years, but nothing has come of it. Many Americans, including their representatives in Congress, are leery of an Internet sales tax. State governments, on the other hand, are eyeing the Internet as a source of revenue. New York state, for instance, imposed various vendor and affiliate registration requirements that would make non-resident sellers responsible for reporting New York state sales taxes. Amazon, which has a strong worldwide affiliate program, has sued and as of this writing, a decision has not been rendered. Do not be surprised if Internet taxation becomes an issue in upcoming years.
Licensing and Disclosure Requirements.
There has been talk by some legislators about licensing Internet use. Their reasoning is that is a person has to get a license to drive a car, then he or she needs to get a license to surf the Internet’s information highway. Licensing requirements would include having to pass a test about anti-virus programs, email use and so on. While it is unlikely that this idea will gain traction, it is not unreasonable to speculate that content writers will need to follow licensing and disclosure requirements for their web publications. With copyright violations, politicians griping about the accuracy of news, and regulations concerning what can and cannot be said with respect to medical or health related products online, public accountability is not a far fetched idea. For instance, the new Internet regulations in Canada (if passed in February 2009) will address Canadian content and copyright issues and might impose a ranking system on websites that is similar to movie ranking systems. Given Americans’ desire to see Internet regulation that is similar to radio and television regulation, the logical conclusion is that Internet publishers would need to register with whatever agency regulates online publication.
Conclusion.
The foregoing paragraphs are just a glimpse at what has been going on and what future trends may be. Given the increasing public opinion that the Internet should be regulated, it is likely that we Internet publishers will see an increasing amount of regulatory proposals that may affect us.
The first step toward protecting oneself from Internet regulation is to publish a legally sound privacy policy statement on your website. Learn how to write a good privacy statement and policies page at the Not Guru blog.
You can find periodic updates on the latest Internet regulatory trends here: Internet Regulation articles at the NotGuru blog.
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