Freedom of speech amid the digital dictatorship of IT corporations

Freedom of speech amid the digital dictatorship of IT corporations


Rovinskaya T.L.,

Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia, mirtania@gmail.com


elibrary_id: 420988 | RESEARCHER_ID: V-9799-2017


DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2022.02.03

For citation:

Rovinskaya T.L. Freedom of speech amid the digital dictatorship of IT corporations. – Polis. Political Studies. 2022. No. 2. https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2022.02.03



Abstract

The article investigates the fate of Freedom of Speech, one of the basic democratic values, amid the monopolization of the digital market and information space by large IT companies (the Big Tech “digital dictatorship”). The author relates the history of the Freedom of Speech principle, considers its connection with the new category of “informational freedom”, touches upon the term “informational violence” (which includes censorship). An important aspect of Freedom of Speech is its relative character, as it must not infringe on other agents’ rights or lead to state (social) security concerns. This provides a great opportunity for various interpretations and hence manipulations of this principle. Under conditions of “digital dictatorship”, Freedom of Speech appears to be limited by censorship on the part of the digital market owners who veil their political bias by worshiping the ideals of democracy. A detailed analysis of IT giants’ activities in the digital market reveals their monopolistic nature, which has economic, legal and socio-political consequences: the digital market submission to the terms set by the dominant companies, the violation of personal data confidentiality laws, the restriction of democratic rights and freedoms (primarily, the right to privacy and the Freedom of Speech). The antitrust campaign against four of the five Big Tech companies launched by the U.S. Congress in 2019, has not been successful. Regarding rights and freedoms violation, the IT giants also remain elusive, given the lack of effective legal practices for the settlement of such conflicts in information space. The situation is worsened by the politics of digitalization itself, which delivers additional controls to the monopolists. Having taken on the roles of censors, law-makers (defining the terms of service) and even policemen (blocking and deleting accounts in social networks), the Big Tech bunch has become a self-sufficient political actor. From a geopolitical perspective, the competitive struggle also takes place in the digital technologies arena, which complicates the maintenance of states’ political independence from the digital monopolists. All this creates conditions for an unlimited “digital dictatorship” of the big IT companies against untrusted users and even states. 

Keywords
Freedom of Speech, democracy, information exchange, information technologies, digital technologies, Big Tech, censorship, digital control, digital dictatorship, digitalization of politics.


References

Mill, J.S. (1859). On liberty. London: John W. Parker and Son, West Strand.

Zuboff, Sh. (2019). The age of surveillance capitalism. The fight for a human future at the new frontier of power. New York: Public Affairs.

 

Gomart, Th. (2020). COVID-19, or the end of the digital innocence epoch. Russia in Global Affairs, 6, 100-116. (In Russ.) https://globalaffairs.ru/articles/konecz-epohi-czifrovoj-nevinnosti/#_ftn1

Stolyarov, A.V. (2010). Freedom of speech in digital millenium. Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta. Seriya 7 “Filosofiya”, 5, 64-82. (In Russ.)

Toguzaeva, E.N. (2013). International experience of assignement of prohibition on propaganda or agitation stirring social, racial, national or religious hatred and hostility. Vestnik Instituta zakonodatel’stva Respubliki Kazakhstan, 3 (31), 112-115. (In Russ.) 

Content No. 2, 2022

See also:



Subdiscipline: Information technologies in politics. – Polis. Political Studies. 2011. No5

Köchler H.,
The new social media: chance or challenge for dialogue?. – Polis. Political Studies. 2013. No4

Kochetkov A.P., Mamychev A.Yu.,
Digital elite: trends of formation and development. – Polis. Political Studies. 2024. No4

Kochetkov A.P., Mamychev A.Yu.,
Russian public policy in the digital age: trends, scenarios and regulatory practices. – Polis. Political Studies. 2023. No1

Timofeyeva L.N.,
Political communicativistics: problems of the formation. – Polis. Political Studies. 2009. No5

 

   

Introducing an article



Polis. Political Studies
1 2005


Sukharev M.V.
Movement of Civilizations: Russia and the West

 The article text
 

Archive

   2024      2023      2022      2021   
   2020      2019      2018      2017      2016   
   2015      2014      2013      2012      2011   
   2010      2009      2008      2007      2006   
   2005      2004      2003      2002      2001   
   2000      1999      1998      1997      1996   
   1995      1994      1993      1992      1991