Article
A Call to Take Back the Internet From Corporations
Rebecca MacKinnon, an Internet scholar…argues that private corporations are exerting excessive power over the Internet and should have that power checked…The control that companies exert...in areas ranging from banking to freedom of speech has raised increasing levels of concern...Governments at this point rarely act directly to constrain the Internet; instead, their policies are mediated through privately owned and operated services, Ms. MacKinnon said...[Every] year the Chinese government gives out “China Internet Self-Discipline Awards” to honor companies that voluntarily cooperate with its censorship policies [including] Baidu...[Good] corporate governance policies...could become more widespread. Google, for example, regularly releases a transparency report, which lists how many requests for information it receives from each government. [also refers to Apple, Amazon, Twitter, YouTube (part of Google), Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft, PayPal (part of Ebay)]