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ABSTRACT
This paper explores a history of “crypto” as a battlefield in a larger discursive struggle to define the meaning of Internet freedom. The term crypto is short for cryptography, which refers to the practice of encrypting, i.e. rendering information illegible to anyone but its intended recipient(s). Drawing on Laclau and Mouffe's theory of discourse, this study investigates how public-key cryptography advocates, and in particular Cypherpunks and technology journalists, have articulated “crypto-discourse”: a partially fixed construction of meaning that establishes a relationship between encryption software and a negative conception of Internet freedom, in relation to the state. I map events pertaining to the articulation of the empty signifier “crypto” among interrelated discourse communities of cryptographers, hackers, online rights activists, and technology journalists during a period of forty years (1975–2015). I present the Crypto-Discourse Timeline as comprised of three periods: the origins (1975–1990), crystallisation (1990–2000), and revitalisation of crypto-discourse (2000–2015). The timeline provides an overview of the complexity and contingency of crypto-discourse as a practice that shapes public policy over time. Crypto-discourse excludes other possible, positive meanings of Internet freedom, removing responsibility from democratic states to uphold privacy rights and freedom of speech online.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Despite the many divergent meanings attributable to the word “hacker”, I will hereafter use the term throughout this paper to refer to members of communities that unite in their practices of developing and modifying internet-specific technologies.
2. Gabriella Coleman and Alex Golub do not refer to Cypherpunks as a discursive community but as participants of a moral genre.
3. In this paper, I do not distinguish between the concept of sovereign state and the concept of government due to their ontological statuses. I treat government as a physical representative of the concept of the state and use the terms interchangeably throughout the paper.
4. For an example of how the term “neutral” functions in a similar manner to an empty signifier in the historicity of the net neutrality debate, see Lentz (Citation2013).
5. My separation of these communities is not definitive.
6. Symmetric encryption describes an encryption system in which two parties share an encryption algorithm and a key to communicate. Through this method, the two parties commonly described by cryptographers as “Alice and Bob” (Schneier, Citation1996), can encrypt messages between one another using the same key to decrypt them. If a third party gets access to the symmetric key, the communication would no longer be kept secret. This constitutes a problem, or a weakness, as the purpose of encryption is to conceal communication. When cryptographers offered a solution to this problem in 1975, they also offered opposition to the state's previously unchallenged position as the sole actor to define the meaning of crypto.
7. Designed by Larry Brilliant, Network Technologies International (Turner, Citation2006).
8. See also Coleman (Citation2017) for more on how state intervention politicised hackers.
9. The genre dates as far back as the late 1960s to works such as Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Citation1996) originally published as Electric Shepherd by Norstrillia Press 1968. For another example of award-winning cyberpunk literature see William Gibson's Neuromancer (Citation1984).
10. For more detailed analyses of Cyberpunk representations and narratives, see Cavallaro (Citation2000), Murphy & Vint (Citation2010), and Slusser & Shippey (Citation1992).
11. Due to space available, this paper focuses on a particular antagonism towards the state. Cypherpunks also articulate crypto-discourse towards other bodies of power and authority, especially large corporations, which also influence the development of the discourse.
12. Bitcoin is an open source digital currency and a decentralised payment system.
13. Bram Cohen had been a contributor to the list and developed BitTorrent in the beginning 2000s (Greenberg, Citation2012a).
14. Julian Assange, Editor-in-Chief of WikiLeaks, was a member of the Cypherpunk community.
15. The four horsemen is wordplay on the biblical reference to an apocalyptic vision brought by four horsemen representing Conquest, War, Famine and Death.
16. Examples of such big leaks are the Collateral Murder Video (number 16a, ) in 2010, showing Iraqi civilians being shot by American soldiers and Cablegate (number 17, ) in 2011, hundreds of diplomatic cables released in cooperation with several European and North American news organisations. These mass leaks were possible because of encryption software.
17. Following the Snowden leaks, the United Nations launched consultations on the status of encryption and whistleblowing practices.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Z. Isadora Hellegren
Z. Isadora Hellegren holds an MA in Communication Studies from McGill University. Her main interest lies in qualitative Internet research, including Internet culture, history, and policy (governance). In her graduate research, she focuses primarily on the historic, cultural, and political dimensions of the representation of Internet-specific technologies through a discourse theoretical approach.