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1 THE CONSCIENCE OF THE INTERNET Professor Cohen-Almagor about freedom, responsibility and ethics at the digital highway Image of the worldwide web By Quinten Van den Broeck https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=nl&u=http://www.dwars.be/artikel/h et-geweten-van-het-internet&prev=search 08-02-2016 Culture Since it was invented, we spend more and more of our time on the internet. And who can blame us? On the Internet, the possibilities are endless: you can read everything, see and say what you want. This freedom is an enormous wealth, but she also has a less pleasant, dark side. And the dark side of the Internet, we must dare to face. That will already Professor Raphael Cohen-Almagor, who was a guest in December at the University of Antwerp to present his book Confronting the Internet's Dark Side. It used to be called the first book on social responsibility on the internet. Cyber Terrorism, cyberbullying, racist chat forums, child pornography ... The Internet should our lives might have improved in many ways, no better people made us. Also on the web, we face our most evil and sinister traits. Yet our moral sense does not seem as sensitive as we are with this evil come into contact from behind the computer screen, says Professor Cohen-Almagor fixed. cyberbullying For his research, the Israeli professor delved into numerous case studies demonstrating this moral deficit. To illustrate, he gives the example of the suicide of 2 Megan Meier in 2006, by far the most notorious case of cyberbullying in the USA. Megan was a fairly ordinary American girl of thirteen who had to contend with ADHD and depression, for which she took medication. When Sarah, a friend and also neighbor Megan, Megan suspected false rumors spread about her in school, got the two quarrel. To get back at Megan Sarah was with her mother a fake MySpace account to which they occurred as Josh, a handsome sixteen year old boy who had just moved into the neighborhood and followed schooling. The plan was to fall in love with Megan, to win her trust and humiliate her then through the sensitive issues that she told to spread Josh at school. Polish polish again. Megan was madly in love with Josh. They had a virtual relationship that lasted four months and Megan felt that Josh was the only one who understood her really. While Sarah and her mother knew of Megan's psychological problems - the parents of Megan and Sarah were friends and even went on a journey together during summer vacations - that did not stop them, not like Josh fragile Megan via the fake profile for four months in suspense hold and its end without dumping occasion. "You are a bad person and everybody hates you. Have a shitty rest of your life. The world would be a better place without you, "they sent to the account of Josh when they decided to put an end to the hoax. Megan Josh still answered "[y] ou're the child of boy a girl would kill herself over" and was twenty minutes later by her parents found in the closet of her bedroom where she had hanged herself. "What people often forget the Internet," says Cohen-Almagor, "is that the online world is as real as the real world. What you do and how you act on the Internet affects real people with real feelings. "Therefore, according to Cohen-Almagor is able to exchange the Internet evolve from a free port where Internet information and ideas to a community of 'netizens', a social space where we also take responsibility for our actions in the virtual world of the web. The responsibility of private actors such as Sarah Drew and her mother is there according to Cohen-Almagor just one aspect. The passive Internet users, the 'voyeurs', have to carry out their responsibilities when they come into contact with sensitive matter. sharing without caring There is the story of intrieste the live broadcast of the suicide of the nineteen-yearold Abraham K. Biggs. Abraham had bipolar disorder and regularly attended the now defunct site justin.tv, where you could stream live broadcasts of people filming themselves from behind their computer. Abraham announced on the Internet that he would commit suicide in his next live broadcast on justin.tv. Although his announcement was made by no one really serious, yet came about a thousand people watching his twelve-hour broadcast. They could see how Abraham ministered himself an overdose of psychiatric medication until he fell after a while fainted and lay motionless. In the comment section, no one liked to take him, some even urged him more pills. For twelve hours no one called the police or emergency services.When she finally arrived, it was too late. Abraham's father later suggested that all the internet users who are passively watched them guilty of the death of his son. It sheds light on the little question how we deal with the things we read or see on the web. Also, in socalled internet communities, where contacts would often be more intensive and less volatile, this appears to be the case. The online world is as real as the real world 3 As Cohen-Almagor does the story of The Dawson College shooting in Montreal, where one person was killed and nineteen others were injured. After the incident became known that the perpetrator, Kimveer Gill, announced already for months on the Internet that he would murder people. Kimveer Gill let himself regularly about his urge to murder on the website vampirefreaks.com, a community of fans of the vampire genre, which he was very active. In all that time no one of his followers tried to make him change his mind. "The people who are now growing up with the Internet are sometimes called theinstant generation. Communication is faster than ever before and therefore there is less time to reflect on what you say and read. Therefore, it is important to have a certain capacity for patience cultivate, "says professor Cohen-Almagor, who do not have all the responsibility on the individual internet user. the great villains? In addition to private users are also governments, businesses and Internet service providers (ISPs) given by the Israeli professor on their responsibilities. For example, they can not monitor the Internet alarming statements like those of Kimveer Gill? According to Cohen-Almagor this is not a matter of can, but of want. Large companies such as Facebook claiming that they are not engaged with the monitoring of their users because of their business. Yet they are the chickens when somewhere violated a copyright, notes Cohen-Almagor. "ISPs are very fast when it comes to money, but terribly slow in terms of issues such as cyberbullying." Such a long time in Italy there was a video on Google Videos which a boy of sixteen with Down syndrome victim of a so-called happy slapping, a euphemism for beating brutally together with any individual, usually by a group of youths who captures on camera and spread on the internet. Four months was this clip in Italy the most watched video on Google Videos. Although Google has received a lot of complaints, the clip was not removed from the site. When they finally began a lawsuit against Google Videos the decision was fast; the film had the Italian law in the first place should not even be placed on the Internet. Three CEOs of the Italian section of Google had initially even a prison sentence of three months, but managed to escape it by going into action. A similar case of ethical insensitivity of Internet was the scandal about the auction site Yahoo Auctions in France. Some users all kinds of Holocaust Paraphernalia there offered, including even the striped pajamas that had belonged to deceased victims. Because this is illegal in France, a group of Holocaust survivors filed a lawsuit against Yahoo. Yahoo declined to identify the objects in question from its site because it had its own admission do not respect French law, since it is not established in that country. Nevertheless, Yahoo lost the lawsuit. "Just like the case against Google Videos in Italy this is an important precedent for how future conflicts will be settled between national and multinational Internet companies," says CohenAlmagor. the dictatorship of freedom Even when users through their services to commit crimes on the Internet, ISPs seem so very reluctant to intervene. According to Professor Cohen-Almagor, this is the doctrine of unbridled freedom that prevails on the Internet: "The guiding idea behind the internet was freedom. Internet was not developed from a sort of master plan, but as open architecture. In the nineties, discovered large US companies the enormous potential that had the internet. This makes the Internet experienced a real boom. While there still existed a small 600 websites, the year was afterwards for 4 about 2.1 million active hosts in 1993. The strong American tinged DNA of the Internet makes it therefore above all attached to freedom. " For Cohen-Almagor have this unbridled freedom on the Internet which are tempered with a healthy dose of social responsibility. In his book, he hopes to kick off this debate. "Do not misunderstand me: as a Liberal, I attach great importance to freedom, but precisely why I believe it is important that we find a good balance between freedom and responsibility. We do not, after all danger of uncontrolled use of freedom of expression to undermine the basic values that underlie "said the professor. "It especially is very difficult to convince Americans of the need for a debate on social responsibility on the Internet," says Cohen-Almagor, "and that's a shame because it is crucial that they also bring action in the story. " Raphael Cohen-Almagor, Confronting the Internet's Dark Side. Moral and Social Responsibility on the Free Highway, 2015.