Intermediary Liability in Russia and the Role of Private Business in the Enforcement of State Controls over the Internet

2020 ◽  
pp. 646-668
Author(s):  
Sergei Hovyadinov
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Government Control ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Online Activity ◽  
The Government ◽  
Intermediary Liability ◽  
Types Of Information ◽  
Control Apparatus

The rapid expansion of the internet in Russia, combined with its potential to instigate a social uprising, has led to the adoption of significant regulatory restrictions on online content and anonymity. Faced with new technical challenges, the Kremlin has enlisted competent and technically capable internet actors—search engines, social networks, hosting providers, and network operators—to help implement these restrictions and control the flow of information. This chapter attempts to demonstrate the evolution of intermediary liability in Russia since 2011–12, when the government drastically changed its stance on internet regulation. It describes how this regulation is followed and enforced with respect to content removal and online surveillance, and how private companies have become an integral part of the state’s internet control apparatus. The chapter examines the legislative framework, enforcement statistics, and most prominent cases for two areas of government control: content and surveillance. ‘Content’ refers to the types of information the state seeks to restrict online, while ‘surveillance’ refers to how the state collects user data and online activity. Within both categories, this chapter focuses on the obligations of intermediaries (telecom operators, web-hosting providers, and social media platforms). This chapter further complements the findings with quotations from semi-structured interviews that were conducted with executives of telecom and web-hosting companies, telecom lawyers, internet activists, and representatives of industry associations.

scholarly journals Institutional Drivers of Internet Voting Adoption in Ghana: A Qualitative Exploratory Studies

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Agbesi
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Organizational Context ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Top Management ◽  
Management Support ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Internet Voting ◽  
Voting System ◽  
The Government

Internet voting system adoption in elections can bring enormous benefits to an electoral process. Though few countries have adopted it for their legally binding elections, others have discontinued its use because of perceived vulnerabilities. But it has been argued that the benefits the internet voting system provide outweigh the perceived vulnerabilities. The main purpose of this study is to examine the drivers of the internet voting system from the organizational context. The study is purely qualitative using semi-structured interviews. The interview participants were top management of EC staff, political parties’ executives and experts who were purposively selected, and thematic analysis was used to extract patterns from the data collected. The main themes that emerged from the thematic analysis include pressure from political parties, pressure from the government, legal framework, financial readiness of EC, EC top management support, convenience, accuracy, and increase voter turnouts. The discussion of the findings and the implication of the results were discussed in the study.

scholarly journals DEFENDING THE STATE THROUGH LOCAL FOOD CAMPAIGN ON INTERNET MEDIA

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lusia Handayani ◽  
Munawar K. Nahrawi
Keyword(s):  
Local Food ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
The State ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Internet Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
State Defense ◽  
Use Of Internet

<p>Food is the fundamental right of every human being. Communities or nations that are not satisfied with food sufficiency will have the potential to cause economic instability and even to bring down a government. Dependence on rice as a staple food can threaten economic and political stability when food is not adequately covered. One alternative that can be made to avoid the threat is to switch to other carbohydrates-based foods that grow in Indonesia, including sweet potato, cassava, arrowroot, and ganyong. However, those local food variety is still considered as second-class food, due to the persistence to rice-eating culture. Therefore, there is a necessity to create a local food campaign on internet media. The Internet is now growing into a medium capable to reach all kinds of people in a quick and precise manner. This descriptive study uses secondary data such as books and journals related to state defense and food security. The study finds that the use of internet as a medium for local food campaign to the community has not been implemented optimally, both by the government and non-government. In line with the rapid development of the internet and the importance of defending the country in all aspects, local food campaigns through internet media require the participation of all stakeholders.</p><p align="left"> </p><strong>Keywords</strong>: defending of the state, local food campaign, internet

An opposition newspaper under an oppressive regime: A critical analysis of The Daily News

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 128-140
Author(s):  
Pedzisai Ruhanya
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Daily News ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
Original Analysis ◽  
The Government ◽  
Complex Relationships ◽  
Historical Moment ◽  
Political Turmoil ◽  
Political Governance

This study focuses on the unprecedented ways in which newspaper journalism helped the cause of democratisation at the height of the economic and political governance crisis, also known as the Zimbabwe Crisis, from 1997 to 2010. The research is designed as a qualitative case study of The Daily News, an independent private newspaper. It was based on semi-structured interviews with respondents, who were mainly journalists and politicians living in Zimbabwe. The analytical lens of alternative media facilitates a construction of how The Daily News and its journalists experienced, reported, confronted and navigated state authoritarianism in a historical moment of political turmoil. The study discusses the complex relationships between the independent and privately owned press, the political opposition and civil society organisations. The research provides an original analysis of the operations of The Daily News and its journalists in the context of a highly undemocratic political moment. Some journalists crossed the floor to join civic and opposition forces in order to confront the state. The state responded through arrests and physical attacks against the journalists; however, journalists continued to work with opposition forces while the government enacted repressive media and security law to curtail coverage of the crisis.

scholarly journals IPTEKS PERAN PENGAWASAN BPKP DALAM MENGAWAL DAN MENGOPTIMALKAN PENERIMAAN NEGARA

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (02) ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Haryo Wiratama Adi ◽  
Inggriani Elim
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Internal Control ◽  
The State ◽  
Indirect Benefits ◽  
Tax State ◽  
Government Bureaucracy ◽  
The Government ◽  
And Control ◽  
Control Apparatus ◽  
State Revenues

Non-tax state revenues are sources of Indonesian state revenues originating from levies paid by individuals or entities, where all proceeds of such revenues are managed by the government in which the proceeds from the direct or indirect benefits of services and utilization of resources and rights obtained from the state, based on taxation legislation. The purpose of this study is to ensure that government bureaucracy (governance) punishes achieving goals by implementing risk management and control. BPKP as an APIP that has authority based on the law and presidential regulation in the management of PNBP, must be proactive, initiative, anticipative to help formulate, plan, implement policies for monitoring PNBP management.Keywords: government internal control apparatus, goverment, regulation in the managemeent of PNBP

scholarly journals Reactive improvement of environmental policies: lessons from the Mariana and Brumadinho disasters

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 182-213
Author(s):  
Michelle Cristina dos Reis Braga ◽  
Alberto de Freitas Castro Fonseca
Keyword(s):  
State Government ◽  
Environmental Policies ◽  
Minas Gerais ◽  
The State ◽  
Dam Safety ◽  
Tailings Dam ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Existing Problems ◽  
The Government ◽  
Regulatory Analysis

The State is not always able to proactively improve environmental policies. Eventually, policy improvements are a result of disasters that expose pre-existing problems. This situation is reflected in the state of Minas Gerais (Brazil), where, after the failures of the Fundão and B1 tailings dam, in Mariana and Brumadinho, several problems in dam safety and emergency policies were exposed. This study had a twofold objective: 1) to identify the mechanisms used by the government of Minas Gerais to improve environmental policies, and 2) to understand how the Mariana and Brumadinho’s disasters affected dam safety and emergency policies. Based on semi-structured interviews and regulatory analysis, the study revealed that the state government of Minas Gerais has been predominantly reactive in controlling environmental policies. Additionally, it was observed that the disasters catalysed a learning process that culminated in potentially better dam safety policies.

The Contentious Public Sphere

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ya-Wen Lei
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
The State ◽  
The Internet ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Critique ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
Uncertain Future ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Legal Subjects

Since the mid-2000s, public opinion and debate in China have become increasingly common and consequential, despite the ongoing censorship of speech and regulation of civil society. How did this happen? This book shows how the Chinese state drew on law, the media, and the Internet to further an authoritarian project of modernization, but in so doing, inadvertently created a nationwide public sphere in China—one the state must now endeavor to control. The book examines the influence this unruly sphere has had on Chinese politics and the ways that the state has responded. It shows that the development of the public sphere in China has provided an unprecedented forum for citizens to influence the public agenda, demand accountability from the government, and organize around the concepts of law and rights. It demonstrates how citizens came to understand themselves as legal subjects, how legal and media professionals began to collaborate in unexpected ways, and how existing conditions of political and economic fragmentation created unintended opportunities for political critique, particularly with the rise of the Internet. The emergence of this public sphere—and its uncertain future—is a pressing issue with important implications for the political prospects of the Chinese people. The book offers new possibilities for thinking about the transformation of state–society relations.

Recovery.gov

2010 ◽  
pp. 174-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franz Foltz ◽  
Rudy Pugliese ◽  
Paul Ferber
Keyword(s):  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Public Trust ◽  
The State ◽  
Open Government ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Major Goal ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Government

President Barak Obama’s directive on transparency and open government, and the creation of the Website Recovery.gov, would seem to be concrete examples of the predictions of cyber advocates that computer-mediated communication and the Internet will change the nature of democracy and make citizens more participatory. A major goal is to try to increase the public’s trust in their government. An examination of Recovery.gov, however, reveals it to be not very interactive and less than fully transparent. While it may be praised for providing information, it falls far short of the vision of cyber advocates. The state sites associated with Recovery.gov do a slightly better job by putting a personal face to the oversight of the recovery. Overall, the sites tend to provide only a limited view into the workings of the government and have a long way to go before they increase public trust in the government.

Media Engineering

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Necati Polat
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Internet Access ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Media Ethics ◽  
Government Control ◽  
Public Resources ◽  
National Media ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
Media Practices

The state of Turkey’s national media under the new regime, curbed in independence far in excess of typical media capture, having allegedly been ‘re-engineered’, with whole media outlets taken over by the government through moot uses of public authority and public resources from 2007, is narrated in this chapter. The chapter describes the hitherto unseen government pressure on the media, with scores of dissident journalists rendered jobless, and those more openly critical incarcerated and put on trial on flimsy charges. The discussion includes a description of some of the pro-government media practices—unprecedented, astounding, and simply incomprehensible by even the lowest standards of media ethics, such as a fabricated interview with Chomsky printed in headline in the pro-government flagship daily in 2013, purportedly communicating Chomsky’s support to Erdogan’s conspiratorial vision of international politics. The discussion also looks into the increasing government control of the Internet access and social media.

scholarly journals Information control by public punishment: The logic of signalling repression in China

2020 ◽  
pp. 0920203X2096301
Author(s):  
Lotus Ruan ◽  
Jeffrey Knockel ◽  
Masashi Crete-Nishihata
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
The State ◽  
Regulatory Environment ◽  
Information Control ◽  
State Repression ◽  
Private Companies ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Government ◽  
Intermediary Liability

When does repression of online expression lead to public punishment of citizens in China? Chinese social media is heavily censored through a system of intermediary liability in which the government relies on private companies to implement content controls. Outside of this system the Chinese authorities at times utilize public punishment to repress social media users. Under China’s regulatory environment, individuals are subject to punishment such as fines and detention for their expressions online. While censorship has become more implicit, authorities have periodically announced cases of repression to the public. To understand when the state escalates from censoring online content to punishing social media users for their online expressions and publicizes the punishment, we collected 468 cases of state repression announced by the authorities between 1 January 2014 and 1 April 2019. We find that the Chinese authorities most frequently publicize persecutions of citizens who posted online expression deemed critical of the government or those that challenged government credibility. These cases show more evidence of the state pushing the responsibility of ‘self-regulation’ further to average citizens. By making an example of individuals who post prohibited content even in semi-public social media venues, the state signals strength and its determination to maintain authority.

scholarly journals Approaches for enhancing information sharing between government and communities in Western Cape

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Murendeni Nelwamondo ◽  
James K. Njenga
Keyword(s):  
Information Sharing ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Computer Training ◽  
Provincial Government ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Free Access ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The Government

Background: The Western Cape Provincial Government uses digital intermediaries to facilitate information sharing between individuals, communities and the government. Digital intermediaries are shared facilities where communities can visit and have access to information and communication technology (ICT) and the internet. Communities benefit economically, socially and politically by using free access to ICT and the internet from intermediaries’ facilities to share information with the government. There seem to be disparities between the roles of the different stakeholders in information sharing. These disparities often result in poor communication between the government and communities, and also poor government services delivery.Objectives: This research investigated how intermediaries can enhance information sharing between government and communities in the Western Cape Province.Method: This study adopted a qualitative research approach by using semi-structured interviews. Purposive sampling was used to collect qualitative data from 15 participants from different intermediaries’ staff in the Western Cape Province. A narrative analysis approach was used to analyse the data.Results: The study found that intermediaries intermediate between communities and the government by providing free access to ICTs, provide basic computer training and access to computing resources and serving as an information hub. The study also found that operating hours, lack of resources, skilled staff and communication challenges adversely affect information sharing.Conclusion: This study recommended that intermediaries are supported to increase the number of resources and facilities and the number and levels of training in the province to cater for more communities. This study further recommended an increase on operational hours, and communication channels between the government and intermediaries.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document