Monday 12 December 2011

modular text or cabinet shuffle

Nine months or so after his self-imposed exile in the States, Germany’s former Economic and Defense minister, with the affectionate moniker zu Googleberg (EN/DE) has returned but this time on the board of the European Commission as the advocate for protecting freedom of the internet, especially from oppressive regimes who would quash the voice of revolution and insurrection.

The former minister assures the commission, the executive branch of the EU governing body, that he can use the network that he built up during his time in the German government to promote measures to safeguard democratic and transparent avenues of expression--plus his own honed skills in citation and referencing. This return and announcement, and perhaps this needed post was created especially for him, comes at a strange time in the court of internet freedom, as the US Secretary of State spoke from the Hague, just days prior, demanding that no country attempt to subvert the freedoms of speech and assembly that the internet helps facilitate. This plea seemed a little facetious given that the US and perhaps in collusion with the rest of the western world is concocting its own more insidious forms of oppression. Perhaps the US alone imagines itself competent and high-minded enough to manage the censorship, what with already having blocked wi-fi coverage to areas where protesters planned to gather (the Los Angeles mass-transit platforms) or courts deeming bloggers separate from journalists or SOPA, which more famously criminalizes cover-bands but also suppresses originality that is not licensed and vetted by the industry. I admired our former minister, despite his transgressions and being made to fall on his sword, and I hope that this post is not just an echo of idealized US policy towards free-speech and internet self-regulation.