Is Internet Regulation Around the Corner?

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 Look at Censorship.

Internet censorship is rising, and it is not just limited to communist China.  By way of example, in the UK, a page within Wikipedia (and in some instances, the entire Wikipedia site) was blocked from UK web viewers because someone filed a complaint with the IWF, a quasi-governmental agency.  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 auction and shopping content would be blocked from UK viewers.

Within the censorship arena is the increasing volume of complaints from politicians who feel that blogs are not correctly reporting the facts about their campaigns or other political news.  Add to this mix the 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 passes Parliament, Australia’s ‘great firewal’ may become the most obtrusive form of government control of the Internet in a democratized country.  Ostensibly for filtering out child pornography, the firewall has fueled intense debate, including free speech arguments.  Reportedly, the government will ban at least 1300 websites. A problem is the lack of transparency or right to dispute a ban because the government has not disclosed the urls of the sites that will be 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.

On a federal level in the United States, there have been rumors about Internet taxation for many years but nothing has come of it.  Many Americans, including Congressional representatives, are leery of an Internet sales tax.  Budget-challenged state governments, on the other hand, are eyeing the Internet as a source of revenue.  For instance, the state of New York has imposed a tough state sales tax law that would make non-resident vendors responsible for reporting taxes on sales to New York residents.  Amazon, which has affiliates all over the world, has sued, and as of this writing, a decision has not been rendered.  Watch for Internet taxation to become an issue in upcoming years.

Licensing and Disclosures.

There has been talk by some legislators that people should be licensed to use the Internet.  Their reasoning is that is someone is required to have a license to drive a car on our nation’s highways, then it is not unreasonable to expect a person to get a license to surf the Internet’s information highway.  License requirements would include basic knowledge about anti-virus programs, email use and so forth.  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 above examples provide a glimpse into what the future may hold when it comes to Internet regulation.  Because so many people refuse to take responsibility for their children’s Internet activities and for their own Internet use, it is likely that we as Internet publishers will see an increasing amount of regulatory proposals.

One thing that web publishers can do, right now, to start to protect themselves is to include a legally sound privacy policy statement on their websites.    You can find out how to write a privacy policy at the NotGuru blog.

Internet regulation and trends are periodically discussed here:  Internet Regulation articles at the NotGuru blog.