@nytimesbits on @rmack at #TEDGlobal – Internet due for a “Magna Carta moment?” #netfreedom

Rebecca MackinnonJennifer 8. Lee of the New York Times reports – A Call to Take Back the Internet From Corporations – on Rebecca Mackinnon’s preview of her forthcoming book Consent of the Networked at  TEDGlobal conferencein Edinburgh, asking “Is the Internet due for a “Magna Carta moment?” ”

Rebecca says:

“The sovereigns of the Internet are acting like they have a divine right to govern, they are in complete denial that there is something horrible they would ever do.”

and, for the users to achieve public accountability:

”It’s going to require innovation that is not only going to need to focus on politics, on geopolitics, but is also going to need to deal with questions of business management, investor behavior and consumer choice”

Ms. Lee concludes:

Ms. MacKinnon predicts that no matter what it will ultimately look like, the process of pushing back on Internet companies is likely to take sustained decades-long political effort, similar to those movements that created environmental and child-labor laws. What is important right now is to open the conversation, she said. She threw out a question on stage: “How can we hold power accountable on the Internet?”