The Internet

The Internet, or simply the Net is the publicly accessible worldwide system of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using a standardized Internet Protocol (IP). It is made up of thousands of smaller commercial, academic, domestic and government networks. It carries various information and services, such as electronic mail, online chat, and the interlinked web pages and other documents of the World Wide Web.

The Internet has had a profoundly positive effect on the free communication of ideas, although sadly only to those who can afford computers. As Robert Anton Wilson puts it:

"I think Talk Radio hosts hate the Net because they know it will replace them very soon. The Net offers real freedom of speech: you can post any opinion you want and defend it as long as you want. Talk Radio offers only a counterfeit of free speech: the hosts all have a Magic Button (honest!) which turns the sound down, or turns it totally off, with any caller whose ideas the host dislikes. Between the real freedom of the Net and the fake "freedom" of Talk Radio, the contest will not last long. Why try to express an opinion in a dull old medium rigorously censored by fanatics and prima donnas, when real freedom exists on the livelier medium of the Net?"

Examples of the libertarian nature of the Internet includes the Creative Commons, which seeks to create a database or body of creative work free from intellectual property laws, wikis, especially the monumentally sucessful Wikipedia, that seek to create more democratically-produced encyclopedias of the human experience, the free distribution of pirated music and film through P2P programs such as Soulseek and BitTorrent, the wide accessability of discussion with people all over the world through message boards and online chats, platforms for creative writing such as LiveJournal, and platforms for the free distribution of art such as DeviantArt and 4chan. These serve as excellent examples of how the Internet has in many ways eschewed the concept of intellectual property and created an environment in which artists who seek to create art out of pleasure and fulfilment rather than out of need for profit have a significantly larger audience.

The Internet has a culture that is very eccentric, esoteric, and has a collective short attention span. The Internet, while enjoying almost ubiquitous usage in Western countries such as the United States, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, and South Korea, has a stigmatism of being frequented by nerds and other social pariahs.

Anarchism shares equal haven on the Internet. Notable anarchist websites include Infoshop.org, Disinfo, the website of the Industrial Workers of the World, and CrimethInc.