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m

CommeNT

be a good netizen
We have to be responsible for our actions on the Internet

ECENTLY, I received an email from


a communications specialist in
Britain verifying if I had dropped
him an email asking for a media freebie.
I was pretty shocked to receive that
note because it included the email
originally sent to him from someone
identifying as myself using personal
details obviously available freely on the
Internet.
But I never sent that email. I have
long been aware of the issue of digital
footprint, and as much as I share a lot
of information on the Net, I try to be
cautious of what kind of information I
share.
Still, to encounter a situation where
the common information name, job,
location you readily share, is being
used, can be quite disconcerting.
In this case, through someone elses
efficiency in doing his job, we managed
to address the issue. The same cannot
be said for many other issues related to
this digital world we now live in not
just in terms of censorship and control,
but privacy and surveillance.
A couple of weeks ago, I spent three
days with more than 100 activists,
academicians and journalists from
around the world at the Regional
Conference on Media and Internet
Freedom in Kuala Lumpur, organised
by the South-East Asian Press Alliance

(look for the #MediaNetAsia14 hashtag


to follow the discourse).
More than 26 issues were formally
covered at the conference and while
all discussions were robust, it did bring
forth to light some revelations I had not
spent too much time worrying about
before.
There were some aspects that were
outright frightening; technological
experts warned us about how easy it is
for someone to hack into our devices
and activists spoke out against governments who were legitimising surveillance through legislation (or through
sneaky methods).
Some spoke about how commercial
organisations were profiling its customers (and how they were using the
data) while others discussed the ethical implications of data mining in the
quest to seek truth.
In fact, things got so grim at one
point that Dont be paranoid became
the mantra for some parts of the final
day.
Having said all that, it was very
heartening as well to see so many
people speak passionately about these
issues, sharing personal experiences
and case studies from the world over.
I left thingking that if we are afraid,
we are not alone, and if we want to
fight back, there are others doing exactly just that.

Unfortunately, we cannot just rely on


others to solve these problems. For one,
history has shown that the state cannot be fully trusted all the time nor can
we simply rely on civil society to fight
our battles for us.
We the people too have to
ensure that we are empowered to
address those issues.
At the conference, one common
theme that kept reappearing was
education; some suggested that ethics
could be part of the education system
while others thought the media could
take on a bigger role in educating the
masses.
For me, all of these boil down to the
issue of literacy. So besides education
and relying on the media, we too need
to be proactive in understanding about
and helping shape digital culture.
In this day where so many people
are connected to the Internet and the
number of digital natives is multiplying, there is an increasing need for us
to be aware of how the Internet works
but also consider the issues of ethics,
propriety and constant change.
Just like how we go about our
offline lives within societal structures
we have developed collectively over
the years, we must do the same online.
Activist Rebecca McKinnon, in
her book Consent of the Networked:
The Worldwide Struggle For Internet

Freedom, spoke of the rise of the digital


commons the virtual equivalent
of Tocquevilles civil society, through
which citizens can mobilise to express
their interest and protect their rights.
This can only work if we all take the
responsibility of our actions and behaviour in the digital world; not just by
being good netizens but also by advocating for a free Internet (to ensure that
space is not limited to some more than
others), standing up for issues they feel
strongly about and keeping institutions
state, commercial, media and more
accountable for their actions.
We can start by understanding how
our actions or inactions affect each
other from the things we say to what
we share. Then there are issues that
also impact our lives directly privacy,
surveillance, access to data, intellectual
property and freedom of expression, as
some examples.
The fact is that we are already so
reliant on this new world and this
will only increase in the future.
This means we will also need to protect ourselves more, not just by being
aware of how we are negotiating the
space but also in advocating for a more
free and safe environment to exist in.
The conference has reminded me
that it is time for me to invest more
heavily my stake in this world, and
perhaps you should too.

Wednesday
5 November 2014

by Niki Cheong

starMetrO

bANGSAr boY reTUrNS

12

n Niki believes that


we should all be
advocates of freedom both online
and offline. Connect
with him via his
blog at http://blog.
nikicheong.com or
Facebook (http://bit.
ly/nikicheong)

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