Information and power - New rules in a changing online world

THE management of information, its manipulation to create a specific impression or damage an individual, the security and integrity of online data, the role of social media in influencing public and political agendas, their role in elections, myriad issues surrounding the rights of those who generate information for commercial purposes and an individual’s right to online privacy are the subject of growing, if belated, public attention.

Nearly every day brings examples of how laws drafted long before the advent of the internet are unequal to the task of protecting individuals, businesses and, in some instances, whole societies from the great forces — good and bad — unleashed by the internet, email and evolving social media.

Everything from the election of Barack Obama as President of the US, the Arab Spring to last week’s sensational campaigning internet video calling for the arrest of Joseph Kony, the fugitive leader of the insanely murderous Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda — already viewed by more than 40 million people — confirms one of the great power shifts in history.