technology

In the latest push against an FCC proposal that would create fee-based “fast lanes” on the Internet, a coalition of tech companies purposely slowed download speeds on their websites. The idea – to demonstrate to users how the new rules might slow traffic on non-paying sites – generated quite a stir: as of September 10th, the FCC received a record-breaking 1.4 million public comments on the proposal.

The coalition of protesting firms includes a roster of sites that rely heavily on user uploads: Mozilla, Etsy, PornHub, Kickstarter, Vimeo, and Reddit all voluntarily slowed traffic. Netflix also joined, displaying a message explaining to users “If there were Internet slow lanes, you’d still be waiting.” Tech giants Google and Twitter added their opposition as well. Protest organizers are asking the FCC to reclassify the Internet as a “Common Carrier” under Title II of the Telecommunications Act, thereby granting the government special regulatory powers designed to protect the web as a kind of public commons.

For most of us, the idea of a “commons” calls to mind a kind of protected natural resource, like the public lands that ecologist Garrett Hardin wrote about in his classic article, “Tragedy of the Commons.” The protesters, though, are asking the FCC to create a “commons” from a service that was built in-part by Internet service providers who now want to charge for speed. So, where might the government stake its claim on a proprietary public service? David Harvey and other social scientists have shown how and why capitalist societies engage in this kind of “commoning.”

• Garrett Hardin. 1968. “The Tragedy of the Commons.” Science 162(3859): 1243-1248
• David Harvey. 2012. Rebel Cities. Chapter 3: The Creation of the Urban Commons. Brooklyn, NY: Verso Books.

The incredible outpouring of individual action in this protest owes a great deal to the organizing efforts of a number of large corporations, each with its own ideological and financial interests in the final ruling. What do you call a campaign that uses grassroots tactics, but takes cues from big business? “Astroturfing”, says Sociologist Edward Walker – and it’s more common than you might think.

• Edward T. Walker. 2010. “Industry-Driven Activism.” Contexts 9(2): 44-49.
• Edward T. Walker. 2014. Grassroots for Hire: Public Affairs Consultants in American Democracy. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Caroline W. Lee. 2010. “The Roots of Astroturfing.” Contexts. 

Last month’s kidnapping of 276 Nigerian schoolgirls was met with a slow response from Nigeria’s state officials, leading activists to turn to social media in hopes of drawing international attention to the crisis. The #BringBackOurGirls hashtag campaign, started by Twitter users in Nigeria, has already been mentioned over one million times on the microblogging platform since its launch three weeks ago.

Social media presents an unparalleled opportunity to form global social movements. With geographic proximity no longer an issue, people around the world are able to have discussions that allow them organize around social issues.

• Zeynep Tufecki and Christopher Wilson. 2012. Social Media and the Decision to Participate in Political Protest: Observations From Tahrir Square. Journal of Communication 62(2): 363–379.
•  Hai Liang. 2014. Coevolution of Political Discussion and Common Ground in Web Discussion Forum. Social Science Computer Review 32(2): 155-169.

With #BringBackOurGirls, online activists have found common ground rooted in enthusiastic resistance to violence against women. However, as we learned from #KONY2012, widespread enthusiasm and awareness are not necessarily sufficient to spur change.

• Ron Krabill. 2012. American Sentimentalism and the Production of Global Citizens. Contexts 11: 52-54.

Though the campaign has garnered support from prominent activist organizations as well as the United States government, critics, namely Rush Limbaugh, have argued that this instance of “hashtag activism” merely illustrates the “powerlessness” of governments to respond to the abductions.  Nonetheless, the campaign was powerful enough to spur action from Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan, who recently designated state resources to finding the girls.

Although transnational “hashtag activism” may publicly pressure officials to act, states also face policy barriers for negotiating with kidnappers which can hinder their capacity to respond to activists. Additionally, numerous factors—including the demands made by kidnappers and whether the location of the hostages is known—have significant bearing on the success of rescue.

• Khusrav Gaibulloev and Todd Sandler. 2009. Hostage Taking: Determinants of Terrorist Logistical and Negotiation Success. Journal of Peace Research 46: 739-756.

In the case of #BringBackOurGirls, hashtag activism has effectively brought international attention to the kidnappings. However, calls for awareness need be coupled with the creation of institutional structures that will help states better deal with such crises.

Heartbleed was a real heartbreaker for the world of online security this past week. The software vulnerability in OpenSSL—a security protocol used by a wide range of popular websites—has everyone wondering what can be done to protect their data. While tech experts (and cartoonists!) do a great job of explaining how Heartbleed happened, we can turn to the social science to ask why people take advantage of these software bugs and what we might do to change their minds.

Market forces matter for stolen data, but hackers also develop rich subcultures which offer social status when members find new and better ways to break in.

• Thomas J. Holt. 2006. “Subcultural Evolution? Examining the Influence of On- and Off-Line Experiences on Deviant Subcultures.” Deviant Behavior, 28(2):171-198.

New experimental research shows hackers invest a lot of effort in their work, so it is hard to stop them once they infiltrate a system. However, putting warnings in computer systems might make them leave faster and take less with them.

• David Maimon, Mariel Alper, Bertrand Sobesto, and Michel Cukier. 2013. “Restrictive Deterrent Effects of a Warning Banner in an Attacked Computer System.” Criminology, 52(1): 33-59.

The recent collapse of Mt. Gox—a prominent exchange site for the internet currency Bitcoin—has sparked wide discussion about the future of “virtual” money and the social groups that create it. Some remain cautiously optimistic (though pointing out that Bitcoin may take itself a little too seriously), while others have said the currency amounts to a “Ponzi scheme” with “no store of value.” As a post from our friends at Cyborgology noted last year,

Calling Bitcoins “virtual currency” is nonsensical because all currencies are virtual in that they are “collective hallucinations” about measurement of worth.

Classic sociological theory investigated how society creates value, and came to similar conclusions. Gold and paper money needed a lot of collective social support to become valuable.

• Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. 1867. Capital. A Critique of Political Economy Volume One London: Penguin, 1990.
• Georg Simmel. 1900. The Philosophy of Money. New York: Routledge, 2011.

What makes one currency more “valuable” than another is institutional support, but this wasn’t always guaranteed for the U.S. dollar, either.

• Bruce G. Carruthers and Sarah Babb. 1996. “The Color of Money and the Nature of Value: Greenbacks and Gold in Postbellum America.” American Journal of Sociology 101(6): 1556–91.

Last month Comcast announced its plans to merge with Time Warner Cable, and internet subscribers may have to choose Comcast as their broadband provider even if they don’t want cable in the near future. With rising cable rates, the merger is stoking fears and outrage among the public, and politicians like Senator Al Franken. The deal has yet to be finalized and the FCC may instruct Comcast and Time-Warner to pump their brakes before merging.  If the deal succeeds, however, the nation’s two largest cable and broadband providers are sure to become a behemoth on the information superhighway.

While profit is a big motive for acquisitions and takeovers, companies also try to take over close members of their social networks to reduce competition. Monopolies and oligopolies are especially likely in industries with only a few major players and close ties.

• Donald Palmer, Xueguang Zhou, Brad M. Barber, and Yasemin Soysal. 1995. “The Friendly and Predatory Acquisition of Large U.S. Corporations in the 1960s: The Other Contested Terrain,” American Sociological Review 60(4): 469-499.
• Marshall Barron Clinard, Peter C. Yeager, and Ruth Blackburn Clinard. 1980. Corporate Crime. New York: Free Press

What does this mean for women, people of color, and low income communities? Rising prices for internet access would expand an already-large “digital divide” in who can use the web and who gets represented on it.

• Eszter Hargittai. 2004. “Internet Access and Use in Context.”  New Media Society 6(1): 137-143.

Also, check out Eszter Hargittai’s “Office Hours” interview where she discusses the expanding gaps and inequalities in the level of internet skills possessed by so-called “digital natives.”

After going years without an adequate form of gender recognition, Facebook users whose identities do not fit neatly into female-male binaries now have the option of selecting one of 50 options, including “androgynous,” “transgender,” “intersex” and “fluid.”  With an estimated 700,000 individuals in the US who identify as transgender, Facebook hopes that the expanded categories will help validate the gender identities of at least some of its users.

However, there is disagreement about the use of this kind of self-identification. Some seek broader public recognition while others view gender identification as futile.

• Katrina Roen. 2002. ““Either/Or” and “Both/Neither”: Discursive Tensions in Transgender Politics.” Signs 27(2):501-22.

Labeling categories of gender and sexual orientation may promote a “politics of containment” where society starts to decide who is and is not an “acceptable queer.”

• Ana Cristina Santos. 2013.  “Are we there yet? Queer sexual encounters, legal recognition and homonormativity.” Journal of Gender Studies. 22(1): 54-64.

On the other hand, by providing alternative options for gender identification state agencies and community-based service providers can expand access to services for people in poverty.

• Dean Spade. 2006. “Compliance Is Gendered: Struggling for Gender Self-Determination in a Hostile Economy” in Transgender Rights edited by Paisley Currah, Richard M. Juang, and Shannon Price Minter. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

For more on the recognition of gender categories on Facebook and beyond, check out these recent pieces from Cyborgology and Contexts.