Putting Policy in Its Place: a talk for Technology and Information Policy Institute at the University of Texas, Austin by Bill Dutton

1. Putting Policy in Its Place:
A Challenge for Research on Internet Policy,
Regulation and Governance
William H. Dutton
Quello Professor of Media and Information Policy
Quello Center, Michigan State University
Follow @QuelloCenter
Presentation for TIPI Speaker Series and RTF Colloquium, University of Texas, Austin, 11
February 2016. Dutton, W. H. (2016), ‘Putting Policy in its Place: The Challenge for Research
on Internet Policy and Regulation’, I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information
Society, forthcoming.

2. Fred Williams, Aimee Dorr, and Bill Dutton, 1981

3. The James and Mary Quello Center
• Established in 1998 in honor of FCC
Commissioner James H. Quello
• Seeks to seeks to stimulate and inform debate
on media, communication and information
policy for our digital age
• Follow the Quello Center online at:
• http://quello.msu.edu
• Twitter @QuelloCenter

4. The Rise of the Internet Over the Past Decade
Many Economic, Social & Democratic Potentials of the Internet and
Social Media, such as for a Fifth Estate
Apparently Unstoppable Progress of the Internet and related ICTs, such
as Social Media
- Internet (85% in North America; 26% in Africa)*
- Social Media (52% Facebook in North America; 10% in Africa)*
- The New Internet World (East Asia & Global South)
- Continuing Innovations: Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, WhatsApp,
WeChat, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, Snapchat, Periscope,
Beme, …
- More innovations: Mobile Internet, iWatch, the first Selfie
Election in US, Mobile Payments, …
*Source: http://www.internetworldstats.com/america.htm [24 July 2015]

5. The Place of Policy?
Irrelevant
• Technology
Governs
• Policy Lags
• Unregulated
info services
enabled New
Internet Age
Central
• Context of All
Decisions,
Analogous to
Gravity!
• Enabled the
New Internet
Age
New Stage or
Phase
• Policy
Matters
Greatly
• Need
Appropriate
Policy
• Impacts Hard
to Anticipate

6. Argument about a New Phase:
Over the next decade, the Internet narrative will shift
from technical innovations, and the public and
commercial opportunities they present, to policy and
regulation.
What is this shift?
Why will it occur?
What risks and opportunities does It present?
What can be done?

7. Decades of Technical Innovations
Time lines of the History of the Internet
Rapid technical innovations
Information services as industrial policy
National support for not regulating (USA, UK)

8. Policy Themes of Early Internet
Research
Access
Controlling Use (copyright, filtering)
Internet regulatory exceptions (protecting children)
Multistakeholder Internet governance (names and numbers)

9. Some Pivotal Events
Wikileaks
Edward
Snowden
European
Right to be
Forgotten
Social Media
Internet of
Things
Today’s
Internet
Bubble 2.0

10. Global Trends Driving Regulation
Internet &
Social
Media
Regulation
Significance
of the Net
Decline,
Substitution
of Old Media
Digital
Divides
Trust Bubble
+ Snowden Moral
Panics?
(Social
Media)
‘Left Out’
of Policy
National
Policy &
Regulation

11. Moral Panics: Social Media & the Internet

12. Global Trends Driving Regulation
Internet &
Social
Media
Regulation
Significance
of the Net
Decline,
Substitution
of Old Media
Digital
Divides
Trust Bubble
+ Snowden Moral
Panics?
(Social
Media)
‘Left Out’
of Policy
National
Policy &
Regulation

13. Broader Implications?
Clarion Calls for Politicians to ‘Do Something’
Blind Regulators and
the Internet (Indian
Parable)
Lack of an Appropriate Regulatory Model
Image from: http://www.jainworld.com/literature/story25i1.gif

14. Appropriate Regulatory Models?
(Proportionate to Offense)
Speech?
Press?
Post?
Data Custodian?
Telephony, Common Carrier?
Cable?
Broadcasting?

15. Manifestations of this Trend
Privacy Initiatives, such as Right to be Forgotten
Continuing Efforts to Enforce Copyright, Block Linking
Content Regulation Increasingly Global
Efforts to Legalize Mass Data Surveillance
Initiatives to Regulate Internet Services
• Net Neutrality
• OTT Services

16. Network Neutrality is:
“Boring” John Oliver, but truly complex
Open Internet?
Battle for the ‘Last Mile’?
Public Utility, available to all?
Common Carrier?
Internet’s First Amendment?

17. John Oliver: ‘All data must be treated equal.’ 1 Jun 2014

18. John Oliver: proposing a better label for Net Neutrality, 1 Jun 2014

19. FCC’s Rules for Open Internet, Net Neutrality:
No blocking (of lawful content)
No throttling
No paid prioritization, access tiering, ‘fast lanes’
No unreasonable interference
Transparency

20. European Network Neutrality
US No Fast
Lane EU Two Tiers

21. FCC on Access to Last-Mile
Market
Regulation

22. FCC on Access to Last-Mile
‘Inappropriate
Utility-Style
Regulation’
‘Bold Action to
Protect Open
Internet’
Waters, R. ‘Internet Groups in Tricky Position over US Net Neutrality’,
Financial Times, 12 February.

23. The Politics of Network Neutrality
The Redneck Review Blog

24. Telecom Industry
Cable Industry
Big Network
Operators
Internet Industry
Content Providers
Advocacy Groups
Digital Activists
Proponents and Opponents of Network Neutrality

25. Republican
Opponents
Democrat
Proponents
Proponents and Opponents of Network Neutrality

26. Politics of
Net
Neutrality
Neutral,
Rational-Legal
Analysis?
Power of
Grassroots
(Internet
Users)?
Partisan
Politics
(“power
grab”)? Rising Power
of Internet
Industry,
Silicon Valley?
Tech
Populism?

27. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
SearchFrequency
Google Search Queries for “Net Neutrality” (2004 – May 2015)

28. 1/18/2014 5/17/2014
9/13/2014
11/15/2014
2/28/2015
4/18/2015
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
SearchFrequency
Google Search Queries for “Net Neutrality” (June 2013 – May 2015)

29. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
SearchFrequency
Net
Neutrality
Digitial
DivideGoogle Search Queries for “Net Neutrality” “Digital
Divide” & “Open Internet” (2004 – May 2015)

30. Governing a Global Ecology of Choices
National
Governmental
Policy & Regulation
Industry, ISP, SNS
Policy & Regulation
User Self-
Regulation
(Learning &
Education)
Bilateral &
Multilateral
Treaties, Inst.
Tech Populism
Multistakeholder,
Multilateral Global
Internet
Governance

31. The Coming Decade
Last Decade’s Narrative: Technical Innovations
The Next Decade’s Narrative: Policy, Regulation &
Governance
Risk: Undermining the Vitality of the Internet and
Social Media, and their Democratic and
Societal Potential – criminalizing sharing,
arresting bloggers, delinking, undermining

32. Policy Issues
Rising Policy Research
Marginalized
Policy and Internet Studies

33. What Can We (Academic Researchers) Do?
Analytical Skepticism
Independent,
Empirical Research
Develop More
Appropriate Regulatory
Model(s)
Make Policy Studies
More Interdisciplinary
Bring Policy Research
into the Fold of Media,
Communication &
Information Studies