(Illustration by Branden Vondrak)
In light of Senate 968 "Protect IP Act" (PIPA) & H.R. 3261 "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA), which potentially threatens to black out our favorite websites at any point in time, we seriously have to begin thinking about who runs the internet. If you think no one does, then you are mistaken. I thought this article by By Sarah Stankorb on American University's website would be great to share because it sheds light on this very topic. Keep reading below...
Picture a vast space, cloaked in darkness. Your virtual life zips along circuits in binary code, looping through servers. A figure at one end of a room flips a switch. Your shopping habits are jettisoned to a retailer targeting your demographic. A different man, we can’t make out his face, taps in code. Your website crashes. (You’d just posted unpopular political views online.) And you, parked at your laptop watching YouTube videos, suspect nothing. It’s science fiction, right? Beyond what we see on our desktops, most of us don’t know what keeps the Internet running or who stands at the other end of miles of cable and code. It’s a simple question, and we should know the answer: who runs the Internet?
For the full article, visit the link below
http://www.american.edu/americantoday/campus-news/20111209-internet-control-DeNardis.cfm
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