Global Information Society Watch 2012 The and corruption Transparency and accountability online

Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and Humanist Institute for CooThematicper reportsation / 1with Developing Countries (Hivos) Global Information Society Watch 2012 Global Information Society Watch 2012

Steering committee Anriette Esterhuysen (APC) Loe Schout (Hivos)

Coordinating committee Karen Banks (APC) Monique Doppert (Hivos) Valeria Betancourt (APC)

Project coordinator Valeria Betancourt

Editor Alan Finlay

Assistant editor Lori Nordstrom

Publication production Mallory Knodel

Proofreading Valerie Dee Lori Nordstrom

Graphic design Monocromo [email protected] Phone: +598 2 400 1685

Cover illustration Matías Bervejillo

Financial support provided by Humanist Institute for Cooperation with Developing Countries (Hivos) Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida)

Global Information Society Watch Published by APC and Hivos 2012

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Licence Some rights reserved.

issn: 2225-4625 isbn: 978-92-95096-85-1 apc-201301-cipp-r-en-digital-176 In search of transparency: From “using” to “shaping” technology

Arne Hintz and Stefania Milan and to bypass the traditional gatekeepers such as Cardiff University and The , mass media, infrastructure providers and the state . In this way it has constituted a crucial tool for civil www .cardiff .ac uk/jomec. and citizenlab .org society campaigners and social movements, with recent examples including the widely debated role In an age in which power equals “the possession, of technology in the “Arab Spring” . However, as assimilation and retailing of information as a basic its uses have progressed, so have the attempts by commodity of daily life,”1 transparency has become both public and private actors to control and restrict a luxury and is no longer a given . Cyberspace is what was previously seen as borderless, “free” and populated by an ever-growing number of invisible uncontrollable cyberspace . The filtering of web barriers making knowledge sharing and circulation content has become a common practice across the difficult, such as strict copyright enforcement and globe, and states in both the East and West now re- content-based discrimination . Digital technologies, strict (and persecute) the dissemination of content 2 however, can contribute to increase transparency deemed illegal or illegitimate . Intermediaries such and fight corruption . They can amplify and facilitate as internet service providers (ISPs) and search en- grassroots mobilisation, and allow an unprecedent- gines are increasingly enlisted by governments to ed outreach and scaling up of protest . Numerous control and restrict access to content, effectively initiatives that work towards creating and expanding becoming proxy censors . Access to infrastructure transparency happen in the realm of technological and online services has been shut down, particu- activism or at the level of policy activism . Here we larly in times of political turmoil (for example in want to point to three of them: Anonymous, Wiki­ Egypt in January 2011), and the “three strikes” laws Leaks and the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative in France and elsewhere restrict people’s internet (IMMI) represent different ways – yet with shared access if they violate intellectual property law by characteristics – in which digital technologies can downloading copyrighted content . The contro- help leverage the grassroots demands for trans- versies on net neutrality – initiated in the US and parency . They demonstrate how technology can increasingly spreading to other jurisdictions – have be used, but also how it needs to be shaped and highlighted the role of network providers as po- developed in order to enhance social and political tential gatekeepers who may discriminate against change . They emerge at the intersection between some content, for example dissident or non-profit content and infrastructure concerns, and they content . Access to critical resources such as funding therefore demonstrate the need to combine trans- increasingly takes place online through companies parency as a political goal with transparency of the such as PayPal: their decision to withdraw services technological infrastructure that serves to advance or limit access can cripple a media organisation, as this demand . In what follows we illustrate these happened with WikiLeaks . Finally, with the ubiquity three instances of internet-enabled and internet- of electronic communication, the “capacity of the focused mobilisation, and we explore, in particular, state to gather and process information about its how they address, implicitly and explicitly, a chang- citizens and about the resources and activities with- 3 ing environment for online communication . in its space is growing by orders of magnitude .” We are witnessing a trend toward systematic and Net challenges and opportunities During its short history as a public communica- 2 According to the OpenNet Initiative, 47% of the world's internet users experience online , with 31% of all internet users tion platform, the internet has enabled people to living in countries that engage in "substantial" or "pervasive" spread information further and wider than before, censorship . OpenNet Initiative (2012) Global Internet Filtering in 2012 at a Glance, blog post, 3 April . opennet .net/blog/2012/04/ global-internet-filtering-2012-glance 1 Sterling, B . (1993) The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the 3 Braman, S . (2006) Change of State: Information, Policy, and Power, Electronic Frontier, Bantam, New York . MIT Press, Cambridge, p . 314 .

34 / Global Information Society Watch ongoing surveillance of all online data, and the ero- opinions, and against the International Federation sion of judicial oversight and established notions of of the Phonographic Industry for its pro-copyright due process . Recent examples include the EU Data battles and its prosecution of the free sharing of Retention Directive, “lawful access” legislation in cultural goods . During the Egypt internet blackout Canada, and the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and in 2011, Anonymous used a variety of technological Protection Act (CISPA) in the US .4 Internet compa- means to facilitate information exchange between nies are gathering significant amounts of user data Egypt and the rest of the world, providing citizens and are increasingly forced to hand over data to with alternative communication infrastructure . Ef- governments . For example, Google received 5,950 forts to uncover secret information have included requests by the US government for the disclosure Operation HBGary, named after a security firm of user data in the first six months of 2011 alone, a whose CEO, Aaron Barr, had announced he had number which was up 70% from 2010 . identified the network’s most active members and The previously free and open environment for cit- threatened to hand them over to the FBI . Anon ac- izens’ online communication is rapidly transforming tivists hacked Barr’s Twitter account, downloaded into a restricted and controlled space, and inter- some 70,000 emails and documents and published net activists have had to take these changes into them online, uncovering proposals by the company account . Efforts to use the internet for advancing to the US Chamber of Commerce to discredit WikiLe- social change are therefore complemented by, and aks, and thereby providing useful information on intertwined with, activism that addresses the plat- secret collaborations between state agencies and form itself by opening new technological avenues security firms . for information exchange, looking for and exploiting Having originated in online chat rooms that fo- unrestricted spaces, and advocating policies that cused on (largely politically incorrect) pranks, the allow for free communication . Net activism, in this network has maintained an orientation to the “lulz” respect, encompasses web-based collective action – a neologism that derives from LOL (“laughing out that both addresses the openness and accessibil- loud”) and indicates the fun associated with pranks . ity of network infrastructure and exploits the latter’s Its particular approach to the defence of free ex- technical and ontological features for political or pression has been marked by irony and disruption . social change . Examples include electronic distur- Unsurprisingly, the authorities in several countries, bance tactics and hacktivism, self-organisation and most prominently the US and the UK, have not autonomous creation of infrastructure, software been willing to see the fun of DDoS attacks and and hardware hacking, and online leaking . In the internet break-ins and have rigorously persecuted following sections, we will briefly introduce and dis- Anonymous . Despite its sometimes illegal and of- cuss three current initiatives whose goals combine ten deliberately annoying approach, we maintain infrastructure and political change . that several of the network’s actions and revelations have, in fact, increased transparency and have shed Mobilising for transparency: light on interesting secrets . Anonymous, WikiLeaks and IMMI A similarly prominent but more formal initiative One of the most prominent examples of net activ- against information secrecy has been WikiLeaks . ism in recent years has been the loose network Founded in 2006 as an online platform for whistle- “Anonymous” . Its self-identified members have en- blowers and for publishing information censored gaged in disruptive activities using electronic civil by public authorities and private companies, disobedience techniques such as distributed denial WikiLeaks’ goal has been to harness the speed, of service (DDoS) attacks, and they have mobilised interactivity and global reach of the internet in to increase transparency and circumvent informa- order to provide a fast and secure mechanism to tion blackouts on the web . They have taken action anonymously submit information, and to make that against companies, governments, and individuals information accessible to a global audience . Partly that, in their view, restrict access to information through its own website and partly with the help both on- and offline . Earlier actions included cam- of media partners, WikiLeaks revealed extensive paigns against the Church of Scientology, accused corruption in countries such as Kenya; illegal toxic of censoring information as well as its members’ waste dumping by British company Trafigura in Côte d’Ivoire (which the British media was legally barred from reporting); corrupt practices of the finance 4 See, for example, Berners-Lee, T . (2012) Analysis: "Cybersecurity" industry in countries like Iceland; information on bill endangers privacy rights, ars technica, 18 April . arstechnica . com/tech-policy/news/2012/04/analysis-cybersecurity-bill- Guantanamo Bay prisoners (the so-called “Guantan- endangers-privacy-rights .ars amo Files”) and on the digital surveillance industry

Thematic reports / 35 (“Spyfiles”); and many other disclosures of informa- WikiLeaks’ practice of exploiting favourable leg- tion previously hidden from the public eye . In 2010, islation leads us to the third and final example of WikiLeaks made even bigger waves by publish- internet-related activism: the Icelandic Modern Me- ing the Afghan and Iraq War Logs, almost 500,000 dia Initiative (IMMI) . Although very different from documents and field reports that provided an un- the hacktivism of Anonymous and the alternative precedented and comprehensive account of the two publishing platform of WikiLeaks, it nevertheless wars and revealed thousands of unreported deaths, combines concerns with content and infrastruc- including many US Army killings of civilians; and by ture in online environments . IMMI emerged in the publishing select US diplomatic cables, taken from context of the financial collapse of the Icelandic a pool of over 250,000 documents, in what became economy in late 2008 and was set up to change known as “Cablegate” . The dispatches offered a the development model of the country from a safe broad perspective on international diplomacy, re- haven for banks and financial services, based on vealing backroom deals amongst governments, US secrecy and the suppression of information, to a spy practices on UN officials, cover-ups of military transparency haven and a favourable environment air strikes, and numerous cases of government cor- for media and investigative journalism . Local social ruption, for example in Middle Eastern and North and media activists, supported by international civil African countries where the revelations fuelled the society organisations, created a bundle of legal and growing anger amongst populations with their na- regulatory proposals to “protect and strengthen tional elites . In the wake of Cablegate, Wiki­Leaks modern freedom of expression .”6 At its core is the operations became increasingly hampered by gov- concern to prevent the suppression of content by ernment investigations of its staff (particularly of both public and private actors . IMMI has initiated founder and editor-in-chief Julian Assange), and the development of a new extralegal economic blockades that have choked Act to enhance access for journalists and the public WikiLeaks’ access to financial resources . WikiLeaks to government-held information; proposed meas- has seen an onslaught of attacks from both pub- ures to limit the use of libel laws, prior restraint, and lic and private actors, sustained attempts to shut strategic lawsuits to block legitimate information; down its operations, and even calls for Assange’s initiated a new law on source protection, making it assassination . illegal for media organisations to expose the iden- WikiLeaks has demonstrated the persistence of tity of sources for articles or books if the source both governmental and private sector secrecy, as or the author requests anonymity; and developed well as the inability of traditional mass media to un- policy proposals on whistleblower and intermediary cover all publicly relevant information and to inform protection .7 Most of its suggestions are informed by, the citizenry comprehensively . As a member of the if not borrowed from, existing laws and regulations “networked fourth estate”,5 its cyber activism has in other countries . If implemented, this package utilised the possibilities of the internet to increase would provide a legal environment able to protect the transparency of our political and economic en- national and international publishers from content vironment, even though it has chosen the more (and other) restrictions . All information originating passive route of providing an upload and publish- from, routed through or published in Iceland would ing function, rather than Anonymous’ approach of be governed by the new set of laws and would there- aggressively seeking and exposing information on fore be very difficult to suppress . In this sense, the perceived wrongdoings . Its core goals have focused content-focused proposals of IMMI are intrinsically on content provision – releases of information that bound to the infrastructure through which content is is relevant for public knowledge – but technologi- transmitted: blogs, websites and all kinds of online cal as well as legal skills have been at the heart of publications would fall under Icelandic jurisdiction the project and fundamental for its success . Using if they use Icelandic infrastructure, even if the pub- decentralised server networks and placing serv- lishing organisation does not physically relocate to ers in countries with beneficial laws that prevent the country but merely posts content on web serv- or reduce the risk of censorship and surveillance, WikiLeaks embodies the intrinsic connection of con- tent and infrastructure . 6 See immi is/Icelandic_Modern_Media_Initiative. . WikiLeaks was instrumental in starting the initiative by proposing the idea of a transparency haven, providing knowledge on relevant laws in other countries, and developing some of the thematic cornerstones 5 Benkler, Y . (2011) A Free Irresponsible Press: WikiLeaks and the together with local and international experts . Battle over the Soul of the Networked Fourth Estate, working draft . 7 IMMI (2012) IMMI Status Report, 9 April . immi .is/ www .benkler .org/Benkler_Wikileaks_current .pdf images/8/8c/2012-04-15_IMMI_status_report .pdf

36 / Global Information Society Watch ers hosted there .8 Consequently, IMMI has added tool for transparency, its own transparency needs infrastructure-related concerns to its agenda, par- to be safeguarded and expanded . This is, of course, ticularly proposals on safeguarding net neutrality, not entirely new . Grassroots tech groups such as and it has engaged with debates on the European riseup .net have, for a long time, engaged in provid- Data Retention Directive and, more broadly, online ing secure and free technical infrastructure for civil surveillance . society groups and social movements, campaigns on net neutrality have become very prominent in From “using” to “shaping” many countries, and the network of civil society- Ideas of openness and transparency were at the based internet service providers, the Association centre of early internet development and internet for Progressive Communications (APC), is a major policy . The supposedly borderless network with force in global internet governance . However, cur- its new publishing opportunities for everyone who rent forms of cyber activism display an even closer had access to it nourished hopes of a new age in connection between content and infrastructure . which normal citizens could bypass traditional Based on thorough technical skills and under- information gatekeepers . Numerous examples standing, they couple a focus on exposing relevant demonstrate the power of using online publishing information with a commitment to shape and ex- and communication for political action and social pand the free spaces of online communication in change, from activist Facebook groups to blog- the face of increasing restrictions . Boundaries be- ger networks such as Global Voices, and certainly tween different strategies and practices become including Anonymous’ actions and the revelations blurred as the hacktivism of Anonymous creates facilitated by WikiLeaks . Thanks to these initiatives, new information channels, the media approach we know more about the world, and it is more likely of WikiLeaks is shaped by infrastructure and in- that corruption is moved from the shadows of se- forms a policy initiative such as IMMI, and IMMI crecy to the sunlight of public knowledge . engages in the compilation of policy components However, as online communication is increas- towards new legal “code”, a practice which could ingly restricted, surveilled and controlled, the be described as “policy hacking” . The practices “free network” can no longer be taken for granted . of the three distinct initiatives described here tell For social movements, this means that “using” the us something about new and sometimes unlikely net may no longer be sufficient but rather has to places where current mobilisations for transpar- be complemented by “developing”, “shaping” and ency can be found, as well as the need to combine “changing” the net infrastructure and its regula- technical strategies, content-related approaches tory and legal framework . Just as the net can be a and policy understanding . n

8 Bollier, D . (2010) A New Global Landmark for Free Speech, 16 June . www .bollier .org/new-global-landmark-free-speech

Thematic reports / 37