Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 27, 2010 News
This week, I want to touch on a topic that I believe not only has relevance right now but is going to receive far greater focus in the upcoming months, in the lead up to the general elections to be precise. That issue is of course the use of the Internet.
First I should say that I am big fan of the World Wide Web. As a professional, I can’t conceive of doing my job properly without web access, from general communication to sharing or receiving documents. I can’t underscore how much a relief it is me to be able to e-mail this column in as opposed to having to have somebody physically taking it to the editor on hardcopy of even on flash drive.
In my persona life, the Internet is a godsend when it comes to keeping in touch with family and friends who I would not otherwise been able to keep in contact with due to distance apart or busy schedules, particularly my own I have to admit.
That said, there is of course a flip side to all of this. There are hazards. One of my concerns was that we were ill prepared for the potential pitfalls that a sudden boom in access to web-ready computers could bring, particularly with issues like child predation and access to pornography, issues that have been troubling ones for other societies in which there is widespread Internet access.
Indeed, with the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company due to activate its E-magine campaign in four days – an initiative that is expected to at least double the speed of the Internet locally – I think that there is now no time more pressing than the present to at least begin looking at some of these issues.
There is, however, another area of concern that I think is far more pressing and volatile than the issue of minors being endangered by bad people on the Internet, and I can only foresee the situation escalating in the upcoming months. I am talking specifically about the abuse of the anonymity and the capacity for widespread dissemination of information that prevails when the best qualities of the Internet are twisted by people with narrow and subversive agendas.
I want to say first of all that in situations which warrant it, anonymous use of the internet as a tool for the dissemination of information can be expected, even welcome.
Persons getting information out of other societies in which the ruling regime would otherwise suppress that information can either be anonymous or put their lives on the line.
People employed by corporations that are flagrantly breaking the law usually have that means as their only reliable way of making first contact in a whistle-blowing endeavour.
The problem comes when the very avenues used to speak the truth while protecting oneself from unfair or malicious persecution, have become the very avenues that people use to peddle lies and protect themselves from rightful and just prosecution.
The Internet has virtually revolutionised character assassination and slander, giving those who engage in it the power to in seconds what their predecessors would have to do in days or even months.
A few months ago, I had cause to publicly address an e-mail campaign against me, in which the author or authors sent messages to friends, co-workers and even family making claims so ludicrous that anyone who knows me well enough would easily dismiss, but not so ludicrous as to cast at least the shadow of a doubt in others, most importantly, people who I have to deal with in my capacity as a public figure, professional relationships which rest primarily upon my credibility and honesty.
Needless to say, after a public challenge, the anonymous campaign ceased.
Now recently, it has started again, but this time what they’ve done is to make accusations of a more personal nature, one in particular which it would be problematic to defend in the first place, not because there is any truth in it but because there is no way that you can refute it strongly in a public way without further fanning the flames of the allegation in the first place.
The strange thing is, in some ways I can consider myself fortunate. When whoever e-mails their slander to my friends and colleagues and family members, despite the very fact that some people are going to forward those mails, the shelf-life for such malicious character assassination is, frankly, only temporary.
For others though, the stain is much more permanent, since the misinformation, untruths, lies, character assassination have found a permanent home on blogs and discussion forums across the Internet. I personally am not up to date with blogging and social networking but the anecdotal evidence reaching me about what is going in the local blogosphere makes you sick to hear even a paraphrasing of what is being said about public figures out there – and make no mistake, this is a political phenomenon.
I know of cases where persons have had their integrity, their business dealings, their fidelity to their spouse or their spouse’s fidelity to them, and their sexual preference being called into question, and more often than not by linking what are clear lies to a little sliver of truth.
And because this a political phenomenon, we can expect the vitriol to become even worse as the campaigning for the general elections next year heats up.
My take on it is that efforts should be undertaken to nip this thing in the bud now, before it becomes even more out of hand, with the political directorate taking the lead in denouncing the excesses of the anonymous bloggers. (Keith Burrowes)
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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