The Internet of Garbage

In 2015, Forbes published The Internet of Garbage in 2015 as part of their "Forbes Signature Series" of e-books.{{Cite news|url=http://the-toast.net/2015/07/23/an-interview-with-sarah-jeong/|title=An Interview with Sarah Jeong, Author of 'The Internet of Garbage'|last=Chung|first=Nicole|author-link=Nicole Chung|date=2015-07-23|work=The Toast|access-date=2018-08-28|language=en-US}} In 2018, The Verge reissued a "1.5" version of the book with a new preface by Jeong after she joined the editorial board of The New York Times.{{Cite news|url=https://www.thecut.com/2018/08/sarah-jeong-the-internet-of-garbage-reissue-the-verge.html|title=Apropos of Nothing, Sarah Jeong's Book About Harassment Is Getting Reissued|last=Arnold|first=Amanda|access-date=2018-08-28|magazine=New York|language=en}}

The thesis of the book is that most of the internet has always been garbage, which has always threatened to make the internet useless. Spam is one such form of garbage, and it has been addressed, imperfectly but manageably, through the use of technology and human curation. Online harassment, especially of women and people of color, has become the newest kind of garbage, and new ways of thinking, new law, and new technologies are needed to manage it.

Written after the concentrated harassment campaigns perpetrated against Caroline Criado Perez in 2013 and multiple other women in the Gamergate controversy in 2014, the book deals with issues of online harassment, and especially gender- and race-related harassment, with an emphasis on the physical danger caused by doxing.{{Cite news|url=https://splinternews.com/erasing-yourself-from-the-internet-is-really-really-ha-1793849640|title=Erasing yourself from the Internet is really, really hard|last=Peterson|first=Latoya|date=2015-07-31|work=Splinter|access-date=2018-08-06}}{{Cite thesis|last=van der Nagel |first=Emily |type=PhD |date=2017 |publisher=Swinburne University of Technology |url=https://researchbank.swinburne.edu.au/file/25cfcac7-82ea-4d9e-8681-d9965e6247d1/1/emily_van_der_nagel_thesis.pdf |title=Social Media Pseudonymity: Affordances, Practices, Disruptions}}{{Cite book|title=Haters: Harassment, Abuse, and Violence Online|last=Poland|first=Bailey|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|year=2016|isbn=9781612348728}}{{rp|21}} The book describes how harassment makes the Internet smaller, and less free for its targets, and seeks to broaden the frontier of free speech for all Internet users.{{Cite journal|last=Croeser|first=Sky|date=October 2016|title=Thinking Beyond 'Free Speech' in Responding to Online Harassment|url=https://adanewmedia.org/2016/10/issue10-croeser/|journal=Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology|doi=10.7264/N35Q4TC4|issn=2325-0496}}{{cite news|url=https://gizmodo.com/fantastic-science-and-tech-books-that-will-reboot-your-1725514076|title=Fantastic Science and Tech Books that Will Reboot Your Brain for Fall|last1=Stone|first1=Maddie|date=September 1, 2015|work=Gizmodo|access-date=3 August 2018}} It also discusses the effects of online visibility on social reputation,{{Cite news|url=https://techcrunch.com/2015/10/18/the-social-web-and-the-digital-panopticon/|title=The Social Web And The Digital Panopticon|last=Chu|first=Arthur|date=2015-10-18|work=TechCrunch|access-date=2018-08-06|author-link=Arthur Chu}} and spam.{{Cite news|url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/spam-whats-yours-is-mine-book-reviews-the-loss-of-internet-innocence/|title=Spam & What's Yours Is Mine, book reviews: The loss of internet innocence|last=Grossman|first=Wendy M|date=2015-12-03|work=ZDNet|access-date=2018-08-06}}{{Cite journal|last=Vasquez|first=Tina|date=Winter 2016|title=The Internet of Garbage (Sarah Jeong)|journal=Bitch|volume=69}}

Writing from a legal and policy perspective, Jeong describes how the regulations applied to the Internet, such as the DMCA and the Communications Decency Act, have been based in copyright law and are focused on taking down problematic content after it has been posted, and were designed to protect corporate interests. She describes how this has made user-generated social media much more viable than it could otherwise have been, but on the other hand, it has left platforms without a framework or legal motivation to address hate speech, harassment, and propaganda.{{Cite journal|last=Smith|first=Shelagh|date=2018|title=Book Review: Haters: Harassment, Abuse and Violence Online|url=http://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol19/iss2/18/|journal=International Journal of Women's Studies|volume=19|pages=261–263}}{{cite book|last=Hwang |first=Tim |title=Digital Disinformation: A Primer |publisher=Atlantic Council |year=2017 |url=http://www.kas.de/wf/doc/kas_50251-1522-2-30.pdf?171005213027}} The book suggests other approaches to dealing with harassment, more akin to the way that spam is filtered.{{rp|202}}{{Cite news|url=https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/06/what-if-we-treated-online-harassment-the-same-way-we-treat-spam/|title=What if we treated online harassment the same way we treat spam?|work=Ars Technica|access-date=2018-08-06}}

The Internet of Garbage was favorably received in the technology press{{Cite news|url=https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-online-comments-suck-and-how-to-fix-them-124623194239.html|title=Why Online Comments Suck (and How to Fix Them)|last=Pegoraro|first=Rob|date=2015-07-21|work=Yahoo! Finance|access-date=2018-08-06}} (Note: The discussion of the book is below the fold; click "Story continues" at the end to unroll that section.) and by feminist organizations.{{Cite news|url=http://www.womensmediacenter.com/speech-project/10-must-read-books-about-online-harassment-and-free-speech|title=10 Must-Read Books About Online Harassment and Free Speech|last=Chemaly|first=Soraya|date=2016-02-10|work=Women's Media Center|access-date=2018-08-06}}
{{Cite news|url=https://www.gadgette.com/2015/10/21/4-must-read-books-about-sexism-on-the-internet/|title=4 must-read books about sexism on the internet|last=Devaney|first=Beulah|date=2015-10-21|work=Gadgette|access-date=2018-08-06}} Writing for Techdirt, Mike Masnick reviewed the book as "nuanced and well worth reading".{{Cite news|url=https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150820/10295032016/techdirt-reading-list-internet-garbage.shtml|title=Techdirt Reading List: The Internet Of Garbage|last=Masnick|first=Mike|date=August 20, 2015|work=Techdirt|access-date=2018-08-06}} Author and professor Alan Jacobs called it "very well done, and rather sobering".{{Cite web|url=http://text-patterns.thenewatlantis.com/2015/07/brief-book-reviews-internet-of-garbage.html|title=brief book reviews: The Internet of Garbage|last=Jacobs|first=Alan|author-link=Alan Jacobs (academic)|date=2015-07-20|website=The New Atlantis|access-date=2018-08-06}} Fortune called the 2018 reissue "more valuable than ever".{{cite web|url=https://fortune.com/2018/08/29/data-sheet-didi-chuxing-uber-murder/ |title=Food for Thought |website=Fortune |date=2018-08-29 |access-date=2018-08-29}}

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== External links ==

;Excerpts

• Jeong, Sarah. [https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahjeong/2015/07/15/apres-moi-le-deluge-what-went-wrong-on-reddit/ "Après Moi, Le Déluge: What Went Wrong On Reddit"]. Forbes. July 15, 2015 (partially excerpted from The Internet of Garbage)
• {{Cite news|url=https://www.fastcompany.com/3048680/today-in-tabs-copyright-law-was-not-created-to-protect-people-from-fatwas|title=Today In Tabs: Copyright Law Was Not Created To Protect People From Fatwas (Chapter from Internet of Garbage)|date=July 15, 2015|work=Fast Company}}
• Jeong, Sarah. [https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/28/17777330/internet-of-garbage-book-sarah-jeong-online-harassment "Chapter 3, 'Lessons from Copyright Law.'"] The Verge. August 28, 2018 (excerpted from The Internet of Garbage)

;Talks and interviews

• {{Cite web|url=http://cyber.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2015/10/Jeong|title=Videoed talk on The Internet of Garbage|website=Berkman Klein Center|date=October 27, 2015}}
• [http://the-toast.net/2015/07/23/an-interview-with-sarah-jeong/ Interview] with Jeong on The Internet of Garbage at The Toast, July 23, 2015

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Category:Books about the Internet

Category:2015 non-fiction books

Category:English-language non-fiction books