Network Equality

Citation: Olivier Sylvain (2015/02/28) Network Equality.
Internet Archive Scholar (search for fulltext): Network Equality
Download: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2588053
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Summary

Author argues a "trickle down theory of internet innovation" dominates internet infrastructure regulation discourse:

innovation in Internet applications will generate more user interest which, in turn, will induce access providers to invest in Internet infrastructure which, in turn, will benefit everyone.

Both 'net neutrality' advocates and opponents take innovation as the goal, disagreeing on what regulatory arrangement will best foster innovation.

But innovation is at best a third order concern of the U.S. Communications Act, and as a prime objective innovation will not fully address the central objective of equal access to communications for everyone in the U.S, nor will innovation redress systematic racial and other disparities which not only result in unequal access, but unequal knowledge about how to utilize access.

Some scholars have begun to develop views that are not as "myopically devoted to the trickle-down theory." Author says in a number of ways policy is beginning to take equality more directly into account, particularly through funding such as the E-Rate program to bring internet access to schools.

The net also produces new ways for "law enforcement, insurance companies, creditors, and others" to "perpetuate existing biases and structures of discrimination."

Suggests policymakers and scholars "attend to disparity and discrimination online in the same ways they have in the physical world" and take up an agenda "that is far less preoccupied with innovation for its own sake."

Quotes:

Under the view I propose here, the Internet is not simply a boutique curiosity with which engineers and computer scientists should be allowed to tinker. Nor is it simply thought of as an engine for economic growth for inventors and companies to exploit. The controlling view ought to be that broadband is more like electricity; it is an essential general use resource to which everyone should have the same or nearly the same access as a matter of course. The longstanding and uncontroversial central objective of communications law and policy – universality – should displace the singular preoccupation with innovation.

...

We might assume that this is nothing more than a question of semantics – that I employ the language of equality and integration, where the prevailing approach relies on tropes in economic and network theory. But that would misunderstand the point of this Article. The argument here for a reorientation towards network equality is that the prevailing approach has things backwards; universal and equal access to all Americans will yield promising social benefits for everyone, but especially the underserved. At least, I argue, the prevailing trickle-down theory overemphasizes the material benefits and consequences of broadband at the expense of the statutory and deontological reasons for integration and inclusion. Network equality matters, I argue, because it gives everyone an opportunity to engage (i.e., benefit from and to add to) in the dynamic opportunities online irrespective of who or where they are. It is a gateway to a vast world otherwise beyond their reach. State-of-the-art Internet connections would help them to redress structural inequities in the delivery of a range of other services.

The Internet should be seen as a transformative general use technology that could reverse historical and existing patterns of oppression, discrimination, bias, and harassment. The trickle-down theory purports to accomplish these ends through indirection. I argue, instead, that a policymaking approach that strives to network equality will more directly achieve universal deployment.

Theoretical and Practical Relevance

Author presented on paper topic, video with Q&A.