Will The Internet Always Be American?

Much to the annoyance of EU regulators and more authoritarian regimes elsewhere, hundreds of millions of people around the world rely on U.S. players — the likes of Twitter, Facebook, Alphabet and Microsoft — to connect to information, and to each other.

Why is that? Is there something inherently American about the internet? And is this story of American online supremacy a business story, or one of cultural and legal values?

Looking forward, the story itself may be coming to an end, as foreign governments seek to assert more control over the internet; individuals become less trusting of the US government as a guardian of privacy and free speech; and U.S. internet companies work to transcend their own nationality, to become truly global players.

Join Future Tense on Thursday, Nov. 10, in Washington, D.C., to explore the internet’s nationality, and the extent to which it’s an expression of American culture, and the extent to which that may be changing. 

Follow the conversation online using #AmericanInternet and by following @FutureTenseNow. Future Tense is a partnership of Arizona State University, New America, and Slate.

Agenda:

Moderated by Andrés Martinez, Editorial Director, Future Tense, @andresDCmtz

12 p.m. Introduction

12:05 p.m. The Internet's Identity Crisis: Trojan Horse for Free Speech or Censorship?

- Emily Parker, Author, "Now I Know Who My Comrades Are: Voices From the Internet Underground" and Future Tense Fellow, New America @emilydparker

- Nu Wexler, Senior Manager of Communications, Twitter @wexler

12:35 p.m. Data's Yearning to Transcend Borders and Boundaries

- Carolyn Nguyen, Director of Technology Policy, Microsoft @mhcnguyen

- Ross Schulman, Co-Director, Cybersecurity Initiative at New America, Senior Policy Counsel, New America’s Open Technology Institute @RossSchulman

- Jennifer Daskal, Associate Professor of Law, American University @jendaskal

1:05 p.m. Live-Streaming the Chinese Dream  

- Hao Wu, Fellow, New America and Documentary Filmmaker

1:15 pm The Universality of Online Culture 

- Ellery Roberts Biddle, Advocacy Director, Global Voices and Fellow, Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society @ellerybiddle

 - Joshua Keating, Staff Writer, Slate @joshuakeating

- Hao Wu, Fellow, New America and Documentary Filmmaker