Huge corporations are now running roughshod over the Internet. At the illusion-shattering core of Digital Disconnect are a pair of chapters on what corporate power has already done to the Internet — the relentless commercialism that stalks every human online, gathering massive amounts of information to target people with ads; the decimation of privacy; the data mining and surveillance; the direct cooperation of Internet service providers, search engine companies, telecomm firms and other money-driven behemoths with the U.S. military and “national security” state; the ruthless insatiable drive, led by Apple, Google, Microsoft and other digital giants, to maximize profits.People so often forget, or never understood, that a social system consists of many subsystems all of which must be mostly compatible with the major organizing system of a society. In our contemporary societies this organizing system is capitalism. It was established by a certain class of people who became known as capitalists for their benefit. Hence, it is not surprising that the world wide web has gradually developed into mainly a vehicle for the private accumulation of wealth. Still it provides a very useful vehicle for social change; and to the extent it does so, we will see increasing attacks made against the dissemination of information that even questions the major organizing system.
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Digital Grab: Corporate Power Has Seized the Internet
Click here to access article by Norman Solomon from Global Research.
