Freedoms of intimacy and the Internet

Abstract

This article argues that new media often get involved in struggles for new rights. Thenascent book was involved in the struggle for religious freedom, the press has beenengaged in the struggle for fairer political regimes and the Internet is used today asan instrument for the advocacy of new liberties: the freedoms of intimacy. Communitiesand individuals seek to gain rights related to the needs and preferences derived fromtheir self-identity. This article shows that the Internet is best suited to dealing withissues associated with the self and intimacy than are other media. Taking the exampleof sexual minorities who use cyberspace as an alternative public sphere, it argues thatit is particularly well adapted to two key practices that are essential to communitybuildingand that can only take place in the public sphere: self-definition and politicalmobilization. The article also shows how public authorities have always tried to censor new mediawhen used by minorities to demand new rights. It argues that censorship has becomeincreasingly efficient and that today's new media face a new means of censorship intechnology. The article illustrates the case with the rating and filtering software usedto censor cyberspace. Finally, it claims that the fight for new rights is part of theprocess of individualization inherent to modernity.