Needing to Have A Voice: Linguistic Grouping in the Digital Networked Environment

nd a w lsh scool of foeign sevice gegetow n unersity “[T]here isn’t an economic internet and a social internet and a political internet; there’s just the Internet,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said about the U.S.’s Internet freedom agenda, claiming that there should not be “walls that divide the Internet.” Indeed, as the Internet is embedded in all aspects of everyday life, it is difficult for states to contain Internet and Internetenabled activities in one or a few selected domains. However, what really divides the Internet may not be “walls” erected by governments that do not like the U.S.’s Internet freedom agenda but the linguistic barriers that have been used to draw the boundaries in which voices can be articulated, heard, and exchanged. Though the Internet may be global and universal in its reach, any Internet user can only access certain segments of the Internet that are determined by his or her linguistic capacity. There may still be a Chinese-language Internet and an Urdulanguage Internet. The link between language and media is not new. Consider the following quotes regarding the role of languages, first in the print media two hundred years ago and second in social media today: