http://mediactive.com/2009/11/14/scrubbing-the-past/ Creating a User's Guide to Democratized Media Thu, 24 Jun 2010 12:27:01 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://mediactive.com/2009/11/14/scrubbing-the-past/#comment-1082 Andy Oram Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:36:06 +0000 http://mediactive.com/?p=977#comment-1082 The dilemma you discuss--the tendency of information to leak out, despite legal attempts to bottle it up--came to a head a few years ago when poll results about upcoming votes were publicized online despite bans on releasing those results within a certain time period before an election. Some jurisdictions try to keep the public from seeing the results of a poll just a few days before an election, fearing that knowing the poll will discourage some people from voting ("I don't think my vote will make a difference"). The press and broadcast media could be controlled this way, but not the Internet. I don't know what the resolution of the problem was. The dilemma you discuss–the tendency of information to leak out, despite legal attempts to bottle it up–came to a head a few years ago when poll results about upcoming votes were publicized online despite bans on releasing those results within a certain time period before an election. Some jurisdictions try to keep the public from seeing the results of a poll just a few days before an election, fearing that knowing the poll will discourage some people from voting (“I don’t think my vote will make a difference”). The press and broadcast media could be controlled this way, but not the Internet. I don’t know what the resolution of the problem was.

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