Tools and Weapons: The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age

by Brad Smith

Information technology and the companies that create it have gone global. The internet was designed to be a global network, and many of its benefits come from its connected nature. Perhaps more than any other technology in history, its influence and its geographical reach exceed any single government. This sets it apart from prior inventions such as the telephone, television, and electricity, which are based on networks or grids that typically correspond to national or state lines. One way to appreciate this challenge is to consider the technology that perhaps was the most similar to digital technology in its regulatory impact. As the 1800s progressed, railroads played arguably a bigger role than any other invention in redefining the United States. They extended beyond the boundaries of the state governments that initially had assumed the most authority to regulate the economy. In the decades that followed the Civil War, the nation’s railroad companies in many ways became larger and more powerful than many state governments. Things came to a head in the 1880s. There was virtually no tradition of regulating the economy at the federal level except during times of war, and proposals in Washington, DC, to regulate railroads, repeatedly went down in defeat. The state governments responded by passing laws to regulate railroad rates that impacted trips beyond their borders. In 1886, the Supreme Court struck these down, ruling that the federal government alone had this power.11 Su...