Public goods and private interests: setting the table for the commercial internet in the 1990s

ABSTRACT

Today, U.S.-based corporations control much of the internet worldwide, but this was not always the case. During the administration of U.S. President Clinton (1993-2001), the U.S. Department of Commerce made deliberate efforts to support the development of a commercial internet. On the national and international stages, the U.S. Department of Commerce asserted its role as the manager of corporate interests, promoting internet governance structures that supported commerce while dampening efforts that might run counter to the goal of establishing a friendly environment for for-profit operators. Archival material tracing the administration's internet governance policy reveals consistent efforts to maximize the potential value of global electronic commerce and to minimize interference by other governmental and intergovernmental bodies. The Clinton administration's decisions related to management of internet structures were often consistent with previous patterns in laissez-faire approaches to media regulation that were themselves consistent with strategies for securing network control. While these patterns aligned with the neoliberal ideology of the time and with broader media history, the explicit attention that the Clinton administration paid to securing a role for private interests proved decisive in constituting the internet as a potential engine for commerce and as a means by which to effect network control.

KEYWORDS:

• Internet governance
• Clinton administration
• commercial influence
• global commerce
• neoliberalism

Notes

1 In June 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court, in the case of South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. changed the rules regarding taxation for online transactions. Prior to this, companies only had to collect sales tax if they had a physical presence in the state, leaving the customer rather than the seller with the burden of paying taxes. On the whole, customers paid these infrequently, and so the updated ruling (overturning 1992’s Quill Corporation v. North Dakota) now allows individual states to require online sellers to collect sales tax on their behalf. The full opinion can be read here: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/17-494_j4el.pdf

2 This is consistent with France’s history of challenging U.S. domination of global communication.; Dwayne R. Winseck and Robert M. Pike, Communication and Empire (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007), 85.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Meghan Grosse

Meghan Grosse is an assistant professor of Communication and Media Studies at Washington College. Her current research focuses primarily on the history of communication networks, internet governance, and the political dimensions that shape media systems.