Running head: REGULATION ON THE INTERNET, COMMERCE CLASUE 1

Regulations on the Internet; Commerce Clause

Karnvir Singh Chauhan

University of California, Merced

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Abstract

My research article focuses on government regulation and how it pertains to the Internet.

The government has access to every individuals search history, messages, social media accounts,

etc. All this content is at their fingertips with their highly advanced technology. The government

has a piece of legislation called net neutrality. Net neutrality is the notion that depending on what

you are using your Internet for they can either increase or decrease its speed. The following

paper focuses on whether or not government regulation is important. Regulation becomes

important when discussing the need to monitor sites such as activity on the black market.

However, it important to pose the question: does the government need to keep an eye on every

little click we make?

Keyword, Government, Net Neutrality, Regulating,

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Cheng, P. T. (2011). CALL A SPADE A SPADE: BARRIERS TO HARMONIZATION AND

CONFLICTING MESSAGES IN EUROPEAN UNION INTERNET GAMBLING

POLICY. Brooklyn Journal Of International Law, 36(2), 693-716.

This article is talking about how gambling should be done online. It states how rules are

different from state to state. The general explanation of this journal is the author explaining how

the government is allowing gambling to happen online. The main issue comes in about money.

Different offshore accounts and how they have to regulate them in order to assure that money is

saved and isnt being stolen. There are four different laws the wire act, the travel act, the illegal

gambling business act, and unlawful Internet gambling enforcement act of 2006. The article

explains how different are acts by outlawing the constitution and not allowing states to have

online casino gambling.

This article is very trustworthy because it is a journal that explain the different parts of

the law and how it discusses the online casino gambling issue. This issue was presented about 10

years ago and most facts have been the same since then. This article will not be very resourceful

in my research question because it is about online casino gambling and talks very little about

how the government will regulate the Internet.

Conti, J. P. (2007). Couldn't care net [Internet neutrality]. Communications Engineer, 5(3), 14-

19. doi:10.1049/ce:20070301

This is a newspaper type of article. The main topic is net neutrality and how different

people feel about it. There are a lot of big companies involved such as Verizon and Google and

they explain what each company thinks. Companies which provide internet service came up with

an idea that they would charge anyone who would want to traffic the internet: This, net
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neutrality supporters argue, would introduce an element of discrimination regarding the source or

ownership of content (July 2007 Pg 16). This explains that if we allowed net neutrality that it

would be discriminatory as well as invading someones personal content.

The article isnt very old so it being recent allows it to be a good source. At the end of

the article it gives a copy right of Communication Engineer is the property of Institution of

Engineering & Technology. That means there isnt a particular author but more than one person

explaining their beliefs collectively. This isnt a really good source of my research topic because

it doesnt give much evidence but it gives a lot of different perspectives.

Cook, V. S. (2014). Net Neutrality: What Is It and Why Should Educators Care?. Delta Kappa

Gamma Bulletin, 80(4), 46-49.

This article starts off with talking about what net neutrality is and explains the different

rules of the FCC. Then it goes into depth, On January 14, 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for

the District of Columbia set the tone for the elimination of Net neutrality within the United States

as currently governed by the FCC, which was granted the role of enforcing Open Internet

practices in 2010 (2014, Cook, pg. 47). This act basically told the FCC that they no longer have

the right to go through the network, as now the Internet is open to all. This has allowed for the

ISP to charge for tiered level of service, which also allows them to have opportunities to move

their service to public, faster, and higher quality.

This is a good resource for my research topic because it gives meaningful definitions, it

also is very recent, and there are examples in it, which took place recently. The author has a PhD

and is the director of the center for online leaning, research, and services.
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Googles Recent Settlement with the FTC Illustrates the Difficulties of Regulating the Internet

Under the Antitrust Laws

This article discussed the Federal Trade Commissions investigation into Google. The

FTC accused Google of giving search preference to companies that were known- associates of

theirs versus other companies. The FTC decided to end this investigation, which caused a lot of

uproar in the community because this inspection was supposed to throw a major curveball in

Googles path. However, the FTC did state that some of the changes Google made to their search

algorithms produced negative results for the companies that it impacted. To combat this, Google

stated that they changed their algorithms so that they could provide their consumers with better

answers to their searches in a more convenient manner.

For me, the credibility of this particular research article does not stand as high as others.

This is because the author doesnt cite her references at the end or structure her article with

proper formatting. In addition to this, it seems as if she is simply repeating the occurrences in a

court case between the FTC and the search engine Google. She doesnt get to her point until the

last sentence of the paper. I believe that due to the low credibility of this article, it will not be of

much use in helping me with my research question.

How Countries Are Regulating Internet Content. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2017, from

https://www.isoc.org/inet97/proceedings/B1/B1_3.HTM

This article focused on the idea of internet regulation in five major countries of the

world- the United States of America, France, Singapore, China, and South Korea. Since the

computer and thus the Internet are relatively new inventions, the kinds of things they also
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connect the world to access and explore everything imaginable. However, governments have

decided that it is necessary to place regulations on this content.

The text discusses how each of the five countries mentioned above regulates their

content. The United States has some of the most complicated restrictions. The author says that

this is because the phone and the computer (crucial parts to the Internet) were invented in this

country. Also, South Korea is the first country to develop any kind of rules against freedom on

the Internet. All in all, there is no one specific set of rules when it comes to internet regulation in

countries. As the author says, each country develops their own model as they see fit for

themselves.

This article might fall short in terms of credibility only because of the age of the citations.

Most of the information the author used in this paper was gathered from the 1990s. This article

will be useful pertaining to my research question because it strengthens it. It would save the

governments of these countries countless amounts of time and effort if they allowed their

nation's citizens to indulge in the freedom of surfing the Internet to their pleasure.

Joch, A. (2009). Debating Net Neutrality. Communications Of The ACM, 52(10), 14-15.

doi:10.1145/1562764.1562773

This is an argumentative article where a lot of different sides are shown. It discusses big

companies like Google, Verizon, AT&T, etc. In this it explained how having net neutrality will

not reach different media on the internet. A given example in this article is allowing the viewing

of the Wall Street Journal but not allowing the same for the new outlet: USA Today. It limits

what is viewed according to net neutrality. ISP would have to allow only certain things that

particular provider would like.

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The author of this article is Alan Joch is a writer who about small business technology

companies. At the end of this article it lists copyrights of communications of the association for

computing machinery A.C.M. This article is very beneficial to my research because it has a lot of

varying opinions, all saying the same argument. Which is beneficial when there is not enough

hard evidence to back up my statement.

Obama's taxing plan to regulate the Internet. (2014, November 13). Retrieved April 03, 2017,

from http://www.americancommitment.org/content/taxing-plan-regulate-internet

This article explains how President Obama is trying to pass a bill that states how every

three months there will be a 16.1% increase on your monthly internet bill. In this article different

sides are shown and what the beliefs are on this issue. It discusses how the commissioner of FCC

is against the bill. He explains how this will make citizens pay 16.1% without voting and that

would force FCC to raise their fees.

This will not be helpful to my research because the bills that were discussed were not

actually passed they were simply ideas for bills that remained proposals. The author to this

source is the president of American Commitment Organization, which makes it credible. Overall

this article gives its reader a perspective of what the viewers perspectives are but isnt beneficial

to my research topic.

Richards, E. P., Shimabukuro, M. L., Combs, S., & Kreuter, M. W. (2004). Legal Approaches to

Regulating Internet Tobacco Sales. Journal Of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 32(4), 64-68.

In this research article it talks about tobacco and cigarettes are bought online and that

identification isnt required. That means anyone who is under the age of 18 can buy and use
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these products even though they are strictly for adults that are 18 and above. It discusses how one

does not get taxed while exporting tobacco online either. Some states tax you more for cigarettes.

The article talks about how ID should be asked for when buying items like these. There are three

different authors who start off at different standing points. One discusses how under age children

are purchasing these products. Another talks about how using cigarettes are bad for ones health

and the last author explains the laws behind buying and selling tobacco.

There are three different authors so it reads as a credible source. But when it comes to

relating back to my question, I realized that this article doesnt really help me. Government

internet regulation and tobacco regulation arent correlated.

Shaw, C. M. (2015). Regulating Your e-Freedom. (Cover story). New American

(08856540), 31(11), 10-16.

This article explains what is happening with net neutrality when it goes into play. It

explains how the government will see those who are viewing videos and listening to music

without paying for it. They want to prioritize to those who are paying for the service. Their plan

is to track down the users who are doing things illegally and so low down their speed. Making a

video buffer for a long time will cause them to get frustrated and close the tab.

This source is not a very credible source. It is a newspaper cite and when it comes to

newspapers a lot of the main key points can get taken out and other things are added to get the

readers attention. The newspapers website explains how they go with the U.S. Constitution. This

would be good for my research because it explains why the government is regulating the internet.
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Stanger, J. S. (2005). Salvaging States' Rights to Protect Children from Internet Predation: State

Power to Regulate Internet Activity Under the Dormant Commerce Clause. Brigham

Young University Law Review, 2005(1), 191-226.

This is a study which took place in 2000 from the National Center for Missing and

Exploited Children (NCMEC) how children get harassed on the internet. It talks about all the

different age groups and explains different percentage of what happened. It explains different

group in different countries on how they go against the government searching through the

internet. Several federal courts have held that similar state laws, which prohibit the

dissemination of pornography to minors via the Internet, are per se invalid under the dormant

Commerce Clause because they impose an undue burden on interstate commerce. This article

explains how pornography shouldnt be shown to minors but we have to take into consideration

that the only way we can see if minors are watching porn is by regulating it. The government

also is regulating these sites for the safety of children who are sexually harassed on the Internet.

This source is more than 10 years old but some of the key points can still relate to today.

It goes into depth of certain cases which are involved in regulating the Internet because of

pornography. This source also works with my research question because it talks about how we

should educate ourselves on how the government should regulate the Internet.

The net neutrality debate and underlying dynamics: Research perspectives. (2017, January 25).

Retrieved April 03, 2017, from https://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/internet/net-

neutrality-debate-underlying-dynamics-research-perspectives

This article explains what net neutrality is and explains how President Obama was against it. It

explains that the internet is an open road and that there is no discrimination. So no matter what
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we cannot stop gambling or pornography because if you pay, you have the right to get what you

want. It discusses how Internet service providers arent allowed to block you from certain sites

that arent for the public eye. Even though ISP isnt allowed to regulate the Internet they cannot

sell faster Internet to businesses who are willing to pay more for service.

This is a good research article to use because it is straightforward and pertains to my

topic. There have been recent court cases and bills passed which make this source credible. It is

recent which means the information is up to date. This source is provided by Harvard so it is

more than likely a credible source.

White, S. (2014). Net Neutrality and Libraries: Conflicts of Access. Serials Librarian, 67(2),

151-157. doi:10.1080/0361526X.2014.939326

This article talks about a case which happened in January 2014 in which Verizon goes to

court about the rights of customer versus the government, and its use of net neutrality. In the

article it states In the suit recently decided by the DC Circuit Court, Verizon argued that the

Open Internet Rules were a violation of its First Amendment rights. Verizon sees that it is the

personal right for any user to do what they like on the Internet. But the government doesnt

realize that the rules they have created are the same rules they are bending. Verizon feels that it is

wrong that government is allowed to slow down a certain persons Internet and increase another.

This article is beneficial for my research topic because it talks about companies that are

very popular like Verizon and how the company felt about net neutrality. The author is from the

Pratt Institute School of Library and Information Science in New York. According to the copious

amount of references this source is credible.