It’s better to have overt censorship than to practice self-censorship, since the former can be openly argued against and resisted. I *do* think that it’s important to engage in cultural self-regulation of the net. The purpose of this cultural self-regulation is not to avoid official regulation from the outside, but rather to help preserve the net as a potential space for the rebuilding of democracy.
Predictor: Agre, Phil
Prediction, in context:The April 1994 issue of The Network Observer, an online newsletter, carries an article titled “Networking and Democracy” by Phil Agre, TNO editor, who was, at the time, working in the Department of Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. In an edited version of his comments made earlier at the Fourth Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference in Chicago in March 1994, Agre writes:”First, I wonder if the likelihood of outside regulation has much to do with the reality of network life, as opposed to some media image of network life. Heaven knows that the attitude of much American law enforcement toward ‘hacking’ has little to do with its reality. Second, if some outside force is going to try to regulate the net, then we should not be doing its job for it. It’s better to have overt censorship than to practice self-censorship, since the former can be openly argued against and resisted. I *do* think that it’s important to engage in cultural self-regulation of the net. The purpose of this cultural self-regulation is not to avoid official regulation from the outside, but rather to help preserve the net as a potential space for the rebuilding of democracy.”
Biography:Phillip E. Agre was an associate professor of information studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, and has been the author of research studies on the Internet. He edited The Network Observer, an online newsletter on Internet issues. (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Censorship/Free Speech
Name of publication: The Network Observer
Title, headline, chapter name: Networking and Democracy
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/people/pagre/tno/april-1994.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne