Shrinking the Internet
The Internet presents unique policing challenges, but these challenges share striking similarities with those in densely populated cities. Both environments are staggering in scope and size, regularly exposing citizens to strangers, unconventional norms, and deviant behavior. And despite their frenetic environments, both foster feelings of remoteness and anonymity. This sentiment, in tandem with the scale of both the Internet and large cities, inhibits the growth of social norms: informal interactions that help communities self-police and shame potential criminals.
Part I will show how these social norms exert an enormous influence over law-abiding behavior. Wherever social norms struggle to spontaneously grow, policymakers lose a critical crime-fighting device. On the Internet, this loss creates a strong temptation to fill the enforcement vacuum with enhanced government intervention. This temptation, however, is misguided. In the city, such techniques have yielded controversial results, as Part II will illustrate.5 And on the Internet, where such techniques are being proposed, invasive law enforcement tactics will prove costly, oppressive, and foster a dangerous disrespect for privacy in the digital age.
