Prologue: Myth of Free Speech
Such undesirable discursive activities, which all together may be referred to as “media manipulation” (Marwick & Lewis, 2017), have become particularly prevalent since the mid-2000s, when the so-called Web 2.0 technologies were introduced. Coupled with the Web 2.0-driven participatory culture of the Internet, digital media manipulation has become more rampant than ever.
Online manipulation occurs not only by spontaneous, individual haters, but more seriously by governments' organized efforts. According Bradshaw and Howard (2017), institutional interruption to online public opinions have become global phenomena, observed in at least twenty-eight countries that they studied. Government meddling in online public opinions is problematic not only because it hinders self-governance of cyberspace, but also because it incites bias and prejudice against alternative voices. Government meddling in online public opinions violates the principles of Barlow's Declaration that underscores the value of informed self-governance, as in the following statement:
“We are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth…We believe that from ethics, enlightened self-interest, and the commonweal, our governance will emerge. Our identities may be distributed across many of your jurisdictions. The only law that all our constituent cultures would generally recognize is the Golden Rule. We hope we will be able to build our particular solutions on that basis.”