[governance] Example of Corporate Internet Authoritarianism -

[Fouad Bajwa]

Hmm,

Apologies beforehand, I may have confused the literal meaning of
authoritarian but authoritarianism also applies to an organization and
we can see that within the evolution and stronghold of capitalism and
capitalist approaches, Amazon does fall in to this domain. For
example, Amazon does dictate who buys or isn't allowed to buy from its
website. Secondly it also dictates who can download or not download
from their website.

A government will not provide me a kindle, I will have to approach
Amazon, the organization in this case for it since it is their
product. Its available for sale to all the developed countries and
certain high income regions but not to the third world/low-income/LDC.
Secondly the website clearly shows through its messages that it
withholds my right to access even a free software product.

Authoritarianism does apply to governance regimes but on the Internet,
the corporations were the first ones to apply governance regimes, the
governments only followed as awareness and participation developed.
The electronic network has its own dimensions of evolving governance
models and there is no significant proof of who came first, the
chicken or the egg.

A small and prior example may also come from PayPal and Ebay. We in
the developing world and in particular Pakistan cannot service through
knowledge work the people of the west or developed because they prefer
to pay us through paypal only and in most instances clearly specify
that they will only work with people with paypal accounts. That
immediately applies an exclusion and when PayPal or Ebay are
approached, they maintain their silence or authority on the choice of
whom they give access to or not.

I was referencing the software, free for all otherwise not free for
Pakistan infact not available at all. If more people in the west
produce for kindles in the near future, more divide for people in this
part in accessing that intellectual or knowledge contribution.
Interestingly, there is no price for the software but still no
provision to people in a developing country like Pakistan. Similarly
has been practice by Ebay and PayPal with the denial of any kind of
service. Why keep us out of the e-economy? If we do something on our
own then over pricing is practised on the developing world. Lots of
issues here but I guess we have to now take stock one by one. It still
is access denied.

I believe that the respect of rights online for us in the in the
developing world are also influenced by western corporations. They
sell us expensive Internet, expensive equipment and continue to deny
access to many services they allow for their regions and people.

In my personal opinion, Internet Authoritariansim is still evolving
and its forms are still being identified. Only signifying governmental
regimes as the only available forms of authoritarianism is not justice
to the world online.

My two cents.... :o)

On Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 8:33 PM, William Drake
<william.drake at graduateinstitute.ch> wrote:
> Hi Fouad
> On Nov 25, 2009, at 3:38 PM, Fouad Bajwa wrote:
>
> Message on Page:
> We're sorry. Kindle for PC is not currently available in Pakistan.
> Are you traveling outside your country?
> Sign in to see if Kindle for PC is available for download in your country.
>
> Seriously, you think a company not selling a product in a country
> constitutes "authoritarianism"?
> Why contribute to the erosion of words' meaning?  Can't we leave that to the
> teabaggers et al?
> Bill



-- 
Regards.
--------------------------
Fouad Bajwa
Advisor & Researcher
ICT4D & Internet Governance
Member Multistakeholder Advisory Group (IGF)
Member Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus (IGC)
My Blog: Internet's Governance
http://internetsgovernance.blogspot.com/
Follow my Tweets:
http://twitter.com/fouadbajwa
MAG Interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATVDW1tDZzA
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