With the raising influence of new media and information and communication technology, networks and network societies increasingly have the ability to challenge traditional structures of power.
In our reading from Sangeet Kumar, we learned how Google represents this concept of network influence in regards to the nation-state. Google “represents a new modality of power, increasingly making inroads into the Westphalian nation-state system.” Kumar also writes that Google and other digital media institutions, “leverage what scholars have called network power, an amorphous web of treaties, organizations and institutions, which functions by presenting its private interest as a public one.”
Ultimately the point is that the nation-state power structure is currently being challenged, and sometimes undermined, by the forces of transnational networks and movements.
The article highlights the tensions between national governments (particularly India) and Google Earth, a program through which anyone can access satellite images of practically any place on the planet. Governments see this as a challenge to their sovereignty over national security, as people can access imagery of government and military buildings, possibly providing adversaries with the intelligence to attack. Google’s main argument is that this information is available elsewhere for anyone to access and also the programs has beneficial aspects.
Google continues to face challenges today with Google Earth and its Street View mapping feature. For instance, the Italian government is investigating Google’s allegedly violating people’s privacy. Apparently, “Google admitted that its researches collected wireless information [while collecting Street View images] including entire e-mails, URLs and passwords.” Google is facing similar charges in Britain for revealing the name and address of a domestic violence safe house.
According to Kumar, Google represents this rise of non-state actors and their influence on international relations writing that “[their] uniqueness comes from an architecture that is designed to be a centerless diffused network, which allows them to present themselves as a web where, in principle, each node has as much control as the other.”
In a recent article in Foreign Affairs, the bi-monthly publication by the Council on Foreign Relation, Google executives discussed this concept of the “’interconnected estate,’ – a place where any person with access to the Internet, regardless of living standard or nationality is given a voice and the power to effect change.”
Google CEO and Chair Eric Schmidt and Director of Google Ideas Jared Cohen write that the traditional form of governance is being, and will continue to be, disrupted by technology and people’s ability to create networks outside traditional boundaries and mediums. They write that governments should recognize the impact of these networks and learn how to work with them (ideally supporting uncensored access) in order to progress their governance paradigm.
Google is leading this effort (most likely looking to profit ideologically and financially) through the establishment of the Global Network Initiative, “an organization that brings together information technology companies, human rights groups, socially responsible investors, and academics in an effort to promote free expression online and protect privacy.”
Sources:
Sangeet Kumar, “Google Earth and the nation-state: Sovereignty in the age of new media” Global Media and Communication 2010 6: 154
Italy news story: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130864130
UK news story: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1324637/Google-Street-View-revealed-address-battered-wife-refuge.html
Schmidt, Eric and Jared Cohen. “The Digital Disruption: Connectivity and the Diffusion of Power.” Foreign Affairs. November/December 2010. Council on Foreign Relations: New York. Accessed Oct. 29, 2010 http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/66781/eric-schmidt-and-jared-cohen/the-digital-disruption
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