The rise of the Internet and the advent of social media has highlighted the need to regulate these open forums whilst balancing the right of freedom of speech. As evidenced by the 2016 US election, although social media can provide an excellent platform for the dissemination of a plurality of ideas and information, it can also be co-opted by bad-actors to spread false information. Disinformation campaigns, such as the one launched by Russia against the 2016 US election, result in vulnerable individuals being ‘tricked’ into believing false information which thereby negatively impacts their individual decision making matrixes. Therefore, following 2016 there has been a push to further regulate social media by specifically targeting disseminators of false information as well as identifying and banning bot accounts. Although these efforts are admirable, they raise questions in regards freedom of speech and who should play the role of arbiter of truth? Should it be the government, the individuals consuming the content or the social medial platforms themselves?

Interestingly, similar issues have emerged in response to the Covid-19 Pandemic. There have been numerous claims of misinformation being spread which is not only dangerous, if its pertaining to medical advice, but also leads to mass hysteria. Therefore, similar to 2016, questions have been raised in regards to how such information should be regulated and who should fulfil that regulatory function. In some counties, such as Cambodia, the Government is stepping in and taking on that role, but this may not be an altruistic act. Cambodian authorities are currently arresting people for expressing concerns about the outbreaks impact in Cambodia, claiming that they are disseminating “fake news.” Interestingly, of the 17 arrests that have taken place since late January of 2020, 4 of those have been members of the opposition party and they remain detained. This is compare to the other 12 who were released upon signing a pledge to cease spreading “fake news.” Thus, the Cambodian Government is appearing to misuse the COVID-19 outbreak as an opportunity to incarcerate political opponents and strangle freedom of speech rather than truly attempting to ensure the validity and truthfulness of information being disseminated via social media and the Internet.

For more information refer to:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/30/fake-news-coronavirus-false-information; and
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/03/24/cambodia-covid-19-clampdown-free-speech

As I found myself on Saturday night in a Google Hangouts with friends from Allard, quarantine delivered beer in hand. With a game of PokerStars on one screen, google hangouts on another, and a guide on how to play poker pulled up on my phone I noticed something that I hadn’t really experienced since moving to Vancouver…. a connection that couldn’t keep up.

Now, growing up in Northern Ontario with blistering internet speeds somewhere between 56-102Kilobytes (Yes. KBps. Not MBps, Not GBPs. KBps.) I was use to video calls not working, online gaming being a lucky break, and leaving my computer on all night to download the latest season of whatever I was watching. I was used to the relative destitute quality of internet. Low and behold I arrive in Vancouver and I have speeds I could never have dreamed of. Amazing.

All of that came tumbling down a choppy group video chat. The article I provide below from the New York Times lays out some startling numbers. I won’t reiterate them here, but the bottom line is apparently when people are quarantined they use the internet a lot. When jobs go remote, they use the internet… a lot. Beyond this, we’re not moving to low data usage items like email, but intensive data requirements. We’ve got the ‘Zoom School of Law’ running full tilt (great fundraiser – link below).

What this has made me realize is that for all our talk of needing to move to more online platforms, work remotely more, and harness the power of the internet… the infrastructure isn’t really there for all of us. If our society wanted to make a rapid transition to working online we would need to really improve the systems that we operate in. Beyond that it points to questions of whether we should throttle some content and not others in this time. Is my desire to play Call of Duty covered in cheetoh dust and the associated bandwidth as important as someone videocalling their doctor? What about a business meeting? We’ve often spoken on net neutrality as a crucial item and lambasted against changing it, but maybe this points to a different set of values we need to consider in times like these.

I have no real answers. I wish I did. What I do have though, stemming from this COVID-19 situation is a much different view of net neutrality. What I also have is a new realization that although I have been a staunch advocate for moving remote (reducing our carbon footprint, eliminating hours lost on commute [currently thrilled I’ve gained 6 hours of my life back from travelling to UBC]) I have failed to account for all the challenges that need to be addressed in managing not the social institutions, but physical institutions required for such a system. If we want to have a future economy, we need to invest in making it accessible to all people all the time. We’re clearly long ways from that.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/26/business/coronavirus-internet-traffic-speed.html
https://abovethelaw.com/2020/03/youre-all-attending-zoom-school-of-law-now-show-your-pride/

I don’t know about you, but I had no idea that Zoom even existed until shortly before we all went into quarantine a few weeks ago. So imagine my surprise when I found out that this company was founded in 2011, reached “unicorn” status in 2017, and went public last year! It currently sits as THE most downloaded free app on the Google Play store, above titans like TikTok and Disney+. It has also seen a 67% increase in usage since the beginning of the year, and has been used to throw parties and facilitate blind dates.

And yet the question still remains – why has Zoom seen success, and not one of any zillions of other similar apps that offer competitive services like FaceTime, Facebook Messenger, or Skype? Nobody really knows for sure, but news articles I read through point to the same few sets of factors: (1) it’s embedding into many secondary and post-secondary institutions; (2) it’s branding, which makes it look newer and cooler than those connected to “older” companies; (3) it’s rapid and very public easing of usage restrictions as self-quarantine measures ramped up; and (4) it’s ease of use and reliability as a program.

That being said however, it’s always important to keep tabs on how your information is collected and used. A quick look through Zoom’s Privacy Policy highlight a few concerning features. Firstly, Zoom uses Google Ads and Google Analytics to collect information on the user while they use their products, including IP addresses, ISP, files and clickstream data. This data is used to help deliver targeted ads to users while on their platform. If you give other apps on the marketplace permission, they may also use the data that Zoom has collected from you, and Google may also use it to improve their own services. Fortunately, they explicitly deny selling personal data in the traditional sense, and allow for several opt-out procedures (although they are cumbersome to elect, such as requiring an authorized agent to write to Zoom).

Does that mean we shouldn’t use it? Not at all! It’s a great app and their Privacy Policy is very easy to read and clear about what is and isn’t being tracked. That’s all for me this time, stay safe and stay healthy!

Blog post was based on these sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/style/zoom-parties-coronavirus-memes.html
https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/03/14/zoom-is-helping-schools-closing-due-coronavirus-fo.aspx
https://www.businessinsider.com/zoom-video-everywhere-google-hangouts-skype-2020-3#its-not-just-you-the-company-said-its-seen-explosive-growth-in-the-past-few-weeks-1
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/03/zoom-college-party-memes-page-dating-ok-zoomer/608617/
https://zoom.us/privacy