Jul 5, 2014

Steve Weber Discusses Cross-Cultural Views of the Internet in the New York Times

From The New York Times

They Have Seen the Future of the Internet, and It Is Dark

By Quentin Hardy

Forecasting is tough. The future comes at us fast today, with too many variables to say much with certainty. Predictions are still useful, though: They are an excellent way to examine the passions of the moment.

The Pew Research Center, one of the better-known think tanks, on Thursday published the third in a series called “Digital Life in 2025.” Even taken as a snapshot of today and not the world to come, the report, titled “Net Threats,” is pretty dark reading....

“I spend a lot of time in the United Arab Emirates, and people there might say that this ‘free Internet’ is a kind of subsidized oligopoly of Western cultural imperialism,” said Steven Weber, professor at the School of Information of the University of California, Berkeley. Where the Pew experts and these Arabs might agree, he noted, is “they also think it’s a place where the N.S.A. spies on you.”

To Mr. Weber, “‘Is the world becoming less free and creative?’ is overhyped rhetoric I’ve heard from the same ‘experts’ for the past decade.”

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Last updated:

October 4, 2016