[x-pubpol] What Wikipedia Won’t Tell You

[Joly MacFie]

NY Times PIPA Op-Ed by the RIAA CEO Cary H. Sherman

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/opinion/what-wikipedia-wont-tell-you.html

The hyperbolic mistruths, presented on the home pages of some of the
world’s most popular Web sites, amounted to an abuse of trust and a
misuse of power. When Wikipedia and Google purport to be neutral
sources of information, but then exploit their stature to present
information that is not only not neutral but affirmatively incomplete
and misleading, they are duping their users into accepting as truth
what are merely self-serving political declarations.

As it happens, the television networks that actively supported SOPA
and PIPA didn’t take advantage of their broadcast credibility to press
their case. That’s partly because “old media” draws a line between
“news” and “editorial.” Apparently, Wikipedia and Google don’t
recognize the ethical boundary between the neutral reporting of
information and the presentation of editorial opinion as fact.

The violation of neutrality is a patent hypocrisy: these companies
have long argued that Internet service providers (telecommunications
and cable companies) had to be regulated under the doctrine of “net
neutrality” because of their power as owners of the Internet pipes.
But what the Google and Wikipedia blackout showed is that it’s the
platforms that exercise the real power. Get enough of them to espouse
Silicon Valley’s perspective, and tens of millions of Americans will
get a one-sided view of whatever the issue may be, drowning out the
other side.

The conventional wisdom is that the defeat of these bills shows the
power of the digital commons. Sure, anybody could click on a link or
tweet in outrage — but how many knew what they were supporting or
opposing? Would they have cast their clicks if they knew they were
supporting foreign criminals selling counterfeit pharmaceuticals to
Americans? Was it SOPA they were opposed to, or censorship?

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