Don't Worry, We're From the Internets!

Don't Worry – We're From the Internets!Exploring the Tension Between Network and National Identities

April 29, 2009Richard NevinsProfessor Manuel CastellsCOMM 559 – Globalization, Communication & SocietyAnnenberg School for Communication – University of Southern California

Don't Worry – We're From the Internets: The Tension Between Network and National Identities

I. Introduction

From its early beginnings as a network of just a handful of American research universities, theinternet has grown to become a massive, global network of networks that connects more than one billion people around the world. While the costs and benefits of connecting so many people to theinternet will continue to be debated and examined, sometimes under-recognized is the achievement of establishing and populating a network that connects so many users across geographies, national boundaries and cultural and economic circumstances. Through accessing this globally interconnectedand interdependent network, internet users have been able to inhabit a space that is separate from theeveryday lived experiences of their 'real lives,' and construct network identities that represent them in avirtual world. These network identities, empowered by a libertarian ethos injected into the code of internet standards by many of the early developers of the network, are fluid, with users being able toexert considerable control over the way that they are perceived by others through the carefulmanagement of information disclosures and the positive association with existing social, cultural or ethnic identities.Considering the internet's global reach, these network identities present a challenge to thetraditional notion of national identity and sovereignty. The deterritorialized space of the internet permits users to access foreign communities and information without physically crossing national boundaries, and to participate with geographically dispersed affinity groups on the basis of sharedidentity or mutual interest. Given that agents can engage in both benevolent and malevolent activitieson the network, the presence of a globally-diffused network identity appears to undermine the authorityof national governments, threaten their ability to manage and regulate the ways that citizens can accessinformation, and weaken the relevance of a shared national identity among compatriots on the internet.The result is a less influential nation-state

Still, despite this rhetoric of virtualization and deterritorialization, the internet is a network thatrelies on a specific physical infrastructure to operate, and an education in the necessary skills andequipment needed to access it. The components of this infrastructure, from the server farms that deliver information and the fiber-optic cables that literally connect nations across the oceans, to the end-user terminals that access the network, exist within the jurisdiction of national governments, or are managedthrough international treaties and agreements that encourage nation-states to support each other'ssovereignty. This provides them with a means of asserting their presence and a degree of control on theglobal network, and presents a palpable response to the notion of a post-national identity on the internetthat is free from the control of a duly-constituted national political and judicial authority. Additionally,access to this network is regulated at least indirectly by telecommunications law and governmentagencies like the Federal Communications Commission in the United States. Some nations, notablyChina, institute far more overt and strict controls of internet access, and as we will see , even liberaldemocracies are known to quash speech and commerce on the internet from time to time,demonstrating that they are not entirely toothless.What, then, is the balance of power between the national identity that has long served as the primary organizing principle for international diplomacy, trade and culture, and this new network identity? In this paper, I will analyze the nature of these network identities and examine how they comeinto conflict with the interests and authority of national identities. Beginning with a brief investigationof the establishment of internet protocols, I will explain how early decisions made by computer programmers and hackers involved with developing internet standards and software have influencedthe separation of network identities from national identities. I will next consider how users havethemselves employed the openness and freedom inherent in the network to begin to widen the rift between network and national identities. Finally, I will discuss how nation-states, aware of thisundermining of their authority, and under virtual siege from malicious actors, have attempted toestablish means of defending themselves and taking the fight to the cyber-warriors in an effort to