[Air-L] The role of Internet and ICT policies in the UK after the 2010 election: does it make a difference for the role of the Internet in British society if there will be a Labour-Lib Dem or a Conservative-Lib Dem government?

Christian Fuchs christian.fuchs at sbg.ac.at
Sun May 9 15:05:11 PDT 2010


Source: NetPoliticsBlog, abridged, see http://fuchs.uti.at/367/ for full
version

Will there be changes in Internet and ICT politics and policies after
the 2010 elections for the Westminster parliament? Will it in this
context make a difference if there will be a Tory-LibDem government or a
Labour-LibDem government? The election manifestos of the three parties
give us an idea of what to expect in the near future for UK Internet
politics.

Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats do not have an agenda for the role they want to
assign to ICTs and the Internet in Britain. In their “Liberal Democrat
Manifesto 2010”, [...] One finds a few passages in the 109
pages of the document, where ICTs or the Internet are mentioned: The
LibDems seem to consider social networking sites and web 2.0 primarily
as problem, where users become victims of individual crimes. Therefore
they want to tackle ”online bullying by backing quick-report buttons on
social networking sites, enabling offensive postings to be speedily
removed“ (p. 17). They do not discuss the problem of online
commodification of users and the circumstance that the Internet is
dominated by a commercial, advertising-oriented culture that results in
data surveillance for economic purposes. Discussions about the online
bullying report button ignore the positive aspects that web 2.0 has for
the socialization and growing-up process of adolescents. [...] The
message that the Liberal Democrat’s manifesto gives is that they have no
clue about what role the Internet and ICTs should play in society.
Having no ICT and Internet agenda is also an agenda, although not a
particularly good one.
So what about the Conservatives and the Labour Party? Can they make a
difference in ICT and Internet politics?

Conservatives & Labour

[..…]

Both the Conservatives and Labour want to advance the rollout of a
super-fast Internet broadband infrastructure. [...] “We want Britain to
become a European hub for hi-tech, digital and creative industries – but
this can only happen if we have the right infrastructure in place.
Establishing a super-fast broadband network throughout the UK could
generate 600,000 additional jobs and add £18 billion to Britain’s GDP“
(Conservative Manifesto 2010, p. 24). [...]

The Labour Party also wants to advance a high-speed Internet broadband
infrastructure. It speaks of “Broadband Britain“: “Britain must be a
world leader in the development of broadband. We are investing in the
most ambitious plan of any industrialised country to ensure a digital
Britain for all, extending access to every home and business. We will
reach the long-term vision of superfast broadband for all [...]” (Labour
Party Manifesto 2010, pp. 1:7f).

Both the Conservatives and the Labour Party leave no doubt that they
want to invest taxpayer’s money for creating a high-speed broadband
infrastructure that is controlled by private companies and that can be
accessed by people in the UK by paying fees to Internet service provider
companies. This means that public investment is used not for creating a
public infrastructure that is universally accessible, which means
accessible for all without payment, but for privatizing the
infrastructure so that is in the hands of companies and thereby de-facto
becomes commodified and private property. If access to knowledge,
knowledge production, and communication are universal conditions of
human and societal flourishing, then Internet access – a central
infrastructure for contemporary information, communication, and
co-operation – should be treated as being part of the commons of society
and should be made available without payment to all citizens. A
commodified Internet infrastructure privileges high-income classes,
stratifies Internet access, as a tendency excludes lower-income groups,
and commodifies the access to knowledge and communication.

The Conservatives do not think about Internet access solutions beyond
the market, whereas the Labour Party suggests to “build on our network
of UK Online centres and public libraries to spread free internet access
points within the community, and develop new incentives for users to
switch to online services“ (Labour Party Manifesto, p. 9:5). Free
Internet access within libraries is a strange idea, it is like not being
able to take home a book from the library, but having to read the full
book in the library. The Internet is a highly flexible and mobile
technology, containing access to certain places, such as libraries, is
therefore an odd and backward-oriented policy suggestion. The only
viable solution is to create freely available, non-commercial wireless
Internet access points all over the country.

What kind of Internet content and platform providers do the Tories and
Labour favour? Both parties claim that they will advance economic growth
by fostering entrepreneurship in the ICT industry and providing tax cuts
and start-up subsidies for ICT and Internet companies. “A Conservative
government will build a new model of economic growth, based on high tech
and high value industries. This means harnessing and catalysing the next
generation of technologies, and helping businesses to create highly paid
new jobs in every part of the country. We will build a high tech 21st
century infrastructure that is fit for purpose, and we will lay the
foundation for a British technology revolution” (Conservative Technology
Manifesto 2010, p. 6). “As recommended by the Dyson Review, we will keep
R&D tax credits but will simplify and refocus them on high tech
companies, small businesses and new start-ups in order to stimulate a
new wave of technology” (Conservative Technology Manifesto 2010, p. 7).

Similar policies are envisioned by Labour: “Labour believes we should
rebuild our economy in new ways: with more high-tech business, fairer
rewards and responsibility from all, including at the top” (Labour Party
Manifesto 2010, p. 0:4). “Within this, the Growth Capital Fund will
focus on SMEs which need capital injections of between £2 and £10
million, while the Innovation Investment Fund will focus on the needs of
high-tech firms” (Labour Party Manifesto 2010, p. 1:6). [...]

Both the Tories and Labour cling to the 1990s Californian ideology
(throwing public money at ICT companies and thereby hoping for economic
prosperity and a new job wonder). The result of the Californian ideology
was not long-time economic growth, stability, and a new job wonder, but
the bursting of the Internet economy bubble in 2000 and as a result the
new economy crisis. It is therefore surprising that the two largest
British parties show continued faith in ICT and Internet corporatism and
do not look for possibilities for public investment in alternative
Internet and ICT models that try to go beyond crisis capitalism, finance
capital, and try to see the Internet and ICTs as part of society’s
commons. The Internet that both parties imagine is one that is dominated
by monopoly capital, [...] So the Tories speak of the “ambition that the
next generation of Googles, Microsofts and Facebooks are British
companies“ (Conservative Technology Manifesto 2010, p. 2). There is not
the slightest awareness in these documents of the many problems
associated with Internet and ICT monopolies and the domination of the
Internet by capitalist logic.

Both the Tories and Labour consider ICTs and the Internet important for
public administration and democracy. However, the ideas of both parties
on digital democracy are conventional and do not go beyond eGovernment.
[...]

The Tories present themselves as the harbingers of direct democracy:
”Give citizens more power: People have been shut out of Westminster
politics for too long. Having a single vote every four or five years is
not good enough – we need to give people real control over how they are
governed. So, with a Conservative government, any petition that secures
100,000 signatures will be eligible for formal debate in Parliament. The
petition with the most signatures will enable members of the public to
table a bill eligible to be voted on in Parliament. and we  will
introduce a new Public reading Stage for bills to give the public an
opportunity to comment on proposed legislation online” (Conservative
Manifesto 2010, p. 66). [...]  The idea of the Conservatives is to let
citizens suggest proposals that are discussed in parliament and to make
use of the Internet to let citizens express their opinion on proposed
legislation. This means that they want to foster political talking and
interaction, but do not want to give citizens real power to influence
and decide on legislation outside of general elections. The suggested
reforms are not an expression of grassroots democracy and grassroots
digital democracy, but rather of populist digital plebiscitarianism or
what Carole Pateman in the 1970s called pseudo-participation: citizens
are summoned to “participate” by communicating and voicing opinions in
order to silence them and discourage real participatory politics, in
which they can directly influence decisions and have a say in politics.

Also Labour wants to strengthen democracy with the help of ICTs and the
Internet, although their ideas remain more abstract: “Opening up
government – central and local – in this way offers huge potential for
Britain. We can use new technologies to give people a say on
policy-making; enable citizens to carry out more of their dealings with
government online; and save money for taxpayers as we switch services
over to digital-only delivery” (Labour Party Manifesto 2010, p.  9:5).
It remains unclear what exactly it means to “use new technologiesto
give people a say on policy-making”. [...]

Both the Tories and Labour understand digital democracy to mean that
government provides more information to citizens with the help of ICTs
and that citizens can communicate opinions to politicians, the
government, and parliament with the help of the Internet. This
understanding of digital democracy is narrow because it fully leaves out
the importance of civil society and citizen-to-citizen political
communication for a flourishing and dynamic democracy. The notion of
democracy is confined to politics, there is no talk about economic
democracy, work place democracy, and democracy in other spheres of
society and the role that ICTs and the Internet could play for advancing
participatory democracy in all realms of society. The understandings of
digital democracy that can be found in the election manifestos of the
Conservative Party and the Labour Party are one-dimensional,
government-focused, and do not realize the actual potentials that the
Internet can pose for democratic reforms that enable participatory
democracy.

[...]

66% of British Internet users aged 15-24 say that it is morally
acceptable to download music for free and 70% say they do not feel
guilty for downloading music for free (Youth and Media survey 2009,
N=1026, Office of Communications: Communication Market Report 2009,
278). Refusing and opposing the interests of young people and other
citizens, both the Conservatives and the Labour Party intend to continue
the criminalization of file sharers in order to guarantee profit
interests for the culture industry. No matter which party will be in
power, a tightening of intellectual property right protection and of the
repression against file sharers and thereby the interest of the majority
of young people can be expected. The Labour Party has announced: “We
will update the intellectual property framework that is crucial to the
creative industries – and take further action to tackle online piracy”
(Labour Party Manifesto 2010, p. 7:6). Similarly the Tories have said:
“We will ensure that Britain has the most favourable intellectual
framework in the world for innovators and high tech businesses. We
recognise the need to tackle digital piracy and make it possible for
people to buy and sell digital intellectual property online. However it
is vital that any anti-piracy measures promote new business models
rather than holding innovation back” (Conservative Technology Manifesto
2010, p. 7).

Both parties miss an understanding of the question if free access to
digital knowledge is a form of cultural democracy that strengthens
capabilities, communication, the public sphere, and cultural dynamics.
They put the corporate interests of the culture industry first and above
the interests of cultural prosumers. Also alternative policy measures,
such as the culture flat rate, are not discussed. The actual or
potential criminalization of a large share of Internet users is simply
accepted, not questioned. Also the problem of how cultural production
can be remunerated in an age of file sharing without enhancing the
dependency of these producers on large media companies and without
criminalizing users is not discussed.

Conclusion

No matter if the resolution to the situation of a hung parliament in
Great Britain will be a Conservative or a Labour government supported by
the Liberal Democrats, one thing is for sure: there will not be any
significant positive changes in the realm of Internet and ICT politics
and policies. The Liberal Democrats have simply ignored this topic in
their 2010 election manifesto, which shows that they consider Internet
and ICTs as unimportant. In contrast, the Labour Party and the
Conservatives compete for which of the two party can create a more
neoliberal ICT policy framework. Both Labour and the Tories stand for
the advancement of the commodification of the Internet and ICTs, the
weakening and economization of the cultural commons of society, the
criminalization of Internet users, opposition to the cultural interests
of young Internet users, ignorance towards ICT-enhanced participatory
democracy, civil society, and citizen-to-citizen political
communication, and the focus on conventional and unoriginal eGovernment
measures. In the UK, government will in the coming years pursue Internet
politics with a backwards-oriented neo-neoliberal agenda. We can expect
an extension and intensification of neoliberal Internet policies. [...]



























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