Control/Freedom

The Index Librorum Prohibitorium or the list of forbidden books by the Vatican is used as an early example of how media content and distribution was and has always been controlled in some way or another and usually quite stringently. This was contested by Enlightenment ideals which considered freedom of speech, expression, and the press central. In the chapter, the various ways in which words, images, and communication are regulated are discussed, as well as the justifications for it, going from national security to morality, social cohesion and harm protection. Freedom of speech is historicised and positioned within the emergence of radical liberalism and guaranteed through liberal constitutionalism. In reality, however, absolute freedom of speech has never existed, not even in the US, which boasts a 1st Amendment doctrine. There are and have always been limits to that freedom. In the context of media and communication and state or legal intervention, the distinction between positive and negative freedoms is highly relevant. Another way in which freedom manifests itself is through private communication and the right to be left alone by the State but also by corporations. Contemporary changes with regard to data extraction and processing have made opacity almost impossible and this is tied to the shift from a Foucauldian disciplinary society to a Deleuzian control society. The datafication of economic, political, and everyday life has furthermore led to a society focused on the elimination of risk and minimising potential harm. All this does not occur uncontested, and the control machine has historically been and still is being resisted in manifold ways, be that through clandestine print cultures of old or hacking software of new.