Examples Of Who Is Truly In Control Of The Internet By Elizabeth Korbert

Landen Smith
English 102
Christina Bently

1
Who is Truly in Control of the Internet Author Elizabeth Kolbert wrote her article “ Who Owns the Internet “ to show the effects that the internet can have on our society. Kolbert begins the article by explaining how Rutherford B. Hayes was under the impression he was going to lose the presidential race. The article then goes on to explain how a man named William Henry Smith who controlled the western arm of the Associated Press used his control over the telegraph lines to help the candidate win. He does this by blasting Hayes's campaign statements and drowning out the other candidates. She uses this as an example from before the time of the internet to show the hold that control over this kind

The author then explains that this is because they have control over more than one service whereas monopolies like Carnegie only had control over one product, which was steel for example. Kolbert proceeds to go into detail on a bill called the Stop Online Piracy Act which had bipartisan support from congress and many other big names. She then explains how Google used its front page to denounce the bill which caused support for it to suddenly disappear. She tells the reader how having control over the internet for a company like Google is all about web traffic. They don’t need to have any part in what happens on the internet, they only need control over how people get to the content they want to

She explains in her article why control over what people see is very important. One of the examples she uses to explain this is a man named William Henry Smith. He was important because he controlled the western arm of the Associated Press. In short, Smith used his power to help a presidential candidate win the election. He did this by blaring his candidates’ statements but making sure that his opponents went unheard. When a democratic paper released a statement about his candidate that put him in a bad light Smith immediately blared articles that discredited the story. He used his control over what people heard to give his candidate what he needed to