{"id":137034,"date":"2023-11-09T00:16:51","date_gmt":"2023-11-09T05:16:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/?p=137034"},"modified":"2023-11-08T16:17:08","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T21:17:08","slug":"northwestern-lab-envisions-ethical-internet-without-capitalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/northwestern-lab-envisions-ethical-internet-without-capitalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Northwestern lab envisions \u2018ethical internet\u2019 without capitalism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Capitalist, ‘military-derived technology’ enables ‘violence,’ professor says<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

A Northwestern University project is described as envisioning an \u201cethical internet\u201d where capitalism is gone and \u201ccommunes\u201d work to create \u201csustainable and non-exploitative\u201d infrastructures.<\/p>\n

Led by communication studies Professor Moya Bailey, a self-described<\/a> black queer disabled woman, the \u201cEthical Internet?\u201d project<\/a> is part of the Illinois university\u2019s Digital Apothecary lab.<\/p>\n

Bailey, the author of “Misogynoir Transformed: Black Women\u2019s Digital Resistance,” is scheduled to speak at a Gender Studies Symposium<\/a> in March at Lewis and Clark College in Portland.<\/p>\n

The topic is \u201cBeing Online,\u201d and speakers will discuss how the internet has become \u201ca space for finding safety, building community, and forging feminist and LGBTQ+ resistance\u201d and how it facilitates \u201cviolence, abuse, and harassment\u201d against marginalized groups.<\/p>\n

Bailey told<\/a> Northwestern Magazine<\/em> in a Fall 2023 feature that one of the goals of the Digital Apothecary lab \u201cis to fight against misogynoir\u201d on the internet \u201cby looking at how different platforms deal with issues of accessibility or racism.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lab, which began about two years ago<\/a>, is \u201cdedicated to combining ancient and new technologies in an effort to produce processes and projects that aid those most marginalized in society,\u201d according<\/a> to its website.<\/p>\n

Bailey said the internet is ethically problematic, in part, because it is capitalist, \u201cmilitary-derived technology\u201d that enables \u201cviolence\u201d around the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan this military-derived, exploitatively built, capitalistically driven, entity of the internet be reconfigured from the ground up in a way that doesn\u2019t exploit human or natural resources? Can the internet be just?\u201d she wrote<\/a> in 2022 at Just Tech<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The lab, which employs Bailey and 11 student \u201cresearch alchemists,\u201d lists “Ethical Internet?” as a current project but does not mention details about researchers’ work or progress; the website only links to the 2022 column.<\/p>\n

The College Fix<\/em> contacted Bailey and the lab twice over the last month, asking for more details and updates on the project, but did not receive a response.<\/p>\n

The Fix<\/em> asked the lab, Bailey and the Northwestern media relations office how the lab and project are funded. None have responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n