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factors in the background: economic, cultural, religious, political,
individual and chances of history. (MacKinnon, 2012a)
Although there is a lot of evidence of the empowering impact of
the internet there is also another type of development trend within the
sphere of internet. In many countries internet has mainly extended the
power of the government or strengthened the impact of totalitarian
regimes (MacKinnon, 2012a). Sometimes interests of the government
are intertwined with the private companies. Companies may want to
extend their markets and public sector as a client is too lucrative for
them although the government policies would turn out to become
destructive for some groups of the citizens. This kind of intermediary
censorship has been in steep rise (Zuckerman, 2010).
According to Rebecca MacKinnon, it would be necessary to study
closer even the relationship between internet and its' revolutionary
impact. For example, Arabic spring in Tunis and Egypt did not take
place because of the Internet, but rather via Internet. Social and
structural changes of the society had developed slowly behind the
curtain since a decade ago. During the years activists experimented
different kinds of network technologies, created and refined contents and
developed their networks of relationships. Finally, an Arabic spring was
a result of the long-standing developments, which actualized both in
physical environment and via internet when a moment occurred.
(MacKinnon, 2012a)
Big media – concentration, globalization and user data
The position of media in relationship to censorship is versatile -
technologies, politics and marketplace will have impact on it. Trends of
concentration, consolidation, convergence and globalization are evident
among media and information industries (Cooper, 2007, Fuchs, 2010,
Noam, 2011). US. media marketplace describes the setting of
concentration well: 5 companies control 85 % of media sources,
Universal Music Group, BMG, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner
Music Group and EMI have 85 % of the music market and 5 largest
cable companies have control over 74 % of the cable subscribers
nationwide (Lessig, 2005).
Globally, the trend of concentration varies in different countries,
but in many countries there are major media companies, typically owned
by major shareholders or families (Noam, 2011). Large international
media conglomerates include National Amusements, Viacom, CBS
Corporation, Time Warner, News Corp, Bertelsmann AG, Sony, General