The Internet As A Battlefield

Abstract

Illustration: Jeff DanzigerIn 2006, when the Pirate Party was launched in Sweden, Amelia Andersdotter was 18 years old. The movement, launched on a platform of reform for European laws regulating copyrights and patents, quickly adopted a broader mandate as it swept across Europe—supporting the individual’s right to privacy, both on the Internet and in everyday transactions, as well as government transparency in its interactions with its citizens. Five years later, Andersdotter took her seat as the youngest member of the European Parliament, her party having catapulted past the Green Party to become the third largest in Sweden by membership. Giving up her studies of mathematics, physics, Spanish, and law, she left university to take her seat in Brussels, where she focused her attention on information policy. A bitter opponent of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, she was largely responsible for its parliamentary downfall. However, this past Spring, Andersdotter lost her parliamentary seat. She has since turned her attention to the role that social media and Internet freedom can play in individual lives, which she discussed with World Policy Journal editor David A. Andelman and managing editor Yaffa Fredrick.