GSPM Blog

by Dr. Michael Cornfield

duckrabbitpolitics

Thanks to several Internet giants, today countless millions of Web users will get a lesson in policy advocacy.  Good on them for exercising their First Amendment rights to speak out, assemble, and petition!  It's a great day for online politics.

Still, the protest against the current versions of anti-piracy legislation also illustrates the unresolved, and perhaps unresolvable, dual status of media organizations as vital channels of public information and dialogue, on the one hand, and gigantic businesses with legitimate but partial interests, on the other.

"Unresolvable" means not amenable to a one-time policy fix.  Which also means a greater role for political managers skilled at legislative negotiation and public dialogue as well as online grassroots advocacy.  The dual status condition --the Internet as simultaneous public square and private business circle-- is a major structural feature of our social world, and the owners of the mega-platforms have to proceed carefully, on the advice and even under the partial direction of our very best politicos.

Got that, Zuckerberg?