Why The World Should Shut Down All Internet Cafés

When Internet cafés first started gaining popularity politicians and academics alike recognized them for more than a mash-up of cappuccinos and web surfing. These pundits envisioned Internet cafés spreading far beyond the trendy urban scenes and deep into the rural landscapes providing physical access to technology and the resources of the World Wide Web. The allure of the Internet would also open up commercial opportunities for fledgling entrepreneurs to entice a growingly curious and interconnected public.

Now take this vision even further to the developing nations around the world as every coffee house and tea house is wired swiftly and steadily introducing vast numbers of people to the Internet and in turn to millions of others around the globe. In fact, only less than a decade ago, most countries were of the view that providing Internet access to all its citizens to be a highly important public policy objective.

Why? The reasons were many from simple economics as the Internet was becoming a substantial part of the global economy to political as a connected society would enable more effective governance through greater citizen engagement with its government. Governments could offer their services online (known as "e-government") and communicate directly to its populace through all the personal communications tools the Internet could offer. It was just time to replace the hammer and sickle and put a web-browser in the hands of every citizen. This premise of "universal access" to the Internet was simple - it was a means to bridge the great digital divide. A technology-savvy populace would build national competitiveness and develop human capital to create a more level playing field in the world market. And to accomplish this goal, governments would involve the private sector by using commercial Internet cafés as the preferred public policy tool.

It all seemed like a perfectly good idea.

How did governments fare in this mission? Read on.

In Malaysia, the former Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi launched his 'Closing the Digital Divide' project in 2003 within the Malaysian state of Melaka. Under this program, cyber cafés were used as training centers to teach the rural public e-literacy. Busloads of rural citizens were brought to the cyber cafés and for every course participant, the state government paid the cyber café owners RM 5 per hour ($1.50/hr). By the end of 2004, the program had managed to train some 25,000 participants.

TODAY: Despite early success, state and local governments are now challenged with the regulation of Internet cafés. The usually open government is forced to periodically put freezes on new applications for cyber cafés due to the widespread use of cyber cafés as illegal gambling and gaming centers that operate at late hours and attract a predominantly school-age clientele. Proposals in 2008 suggested that cyber cafés close at midnight, only operate on the ground floor of buildings, children in school uniforms will not be allowed to such outlets which should be required to have clear and untinted windows, and provisions are aimed at banning the sale or use of alcohol and cigarettes on the premises. Cyber cafés that are discovered to be used for gambling would suffer imposition of fines or closure from local authorities. The debate on Internet usages at cafés continues. The Malaysian Minister of Culture and Communication had proposed to install a Web filtering software system to restrict citizens from engaging in "immoral online activities. The proposal was rejected by the government in August 2009; in a more balanced approach the government continues to advise its citizens to be "guided by their cultural and moral values" in cyberspace.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's policy is that the Government will not impose any censorship of the Internet. "So far, there is no change in the Government's policy on this issue." Prime Minister Najib, a strong advocate of a digital economy and modern digital policy, indicated that the information travels freely in the developing world of information and communication technology. "If we put a form of control, the people cannot accept it," he said.

Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi announced in 2005 a plan to have universal internet access in Ethiopia within 3 years envisioning Internet cafés are the main source of Internet access in urban and rural areas . "We plan to ensure universal access and Internet connectivity to all the tens of thousands of rural kebeles (districts) of our country over the next two to three years," he said.

TODAY: The Ethiopian national government now maintains strict influence over the Internet through a state-owned telecommunications corporation and government regulatory agency granting them exclusive control of access to the Internet and online media throughout the country. Internet cafés and other resellers of Internet services must be licensed by the government and must purchase their access from it. Internet café owners are required to log the names and addresses of individual customers, as part of an effort to track users who engage in illegal activities online. The lists are to be turned over to the police, and those owners who fail to register users may face imprisonment. Today Ethiopia is far from achieving universal internet access. With an Internet penetration rate of 0.4% there are approximately 360,000 internet subscribers out of a population of 85 million.

To increase Internet penetration especially in the rural areas, the Government of India set out many ambitious initiatives such as establishing Internet cafés under public-private partnerships that offer their services free or with significant subsidies to low income groups. Another action is in setting up the Cyber Café Association of India (CCAOI) with the objective of promoting Internet to the common masses across the nation. It is estimated that there are now approximately 250,000 Internet cafés in India with about 20% classified as government-subsidized.

TODAY: The threat of Internet cafés peaked the government's attention after the serial blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad in 2008. As militant groups send "terror e-mails" warning of bomb blasts in the country, intelligence agencies stepped up surveillance of cyber cafés across the nation. City police in India have also been cracking down on cyber cafés for operating without license. Police drew out plans to make fingerprint scanners mandatory at internet cafés further increasing its control over these establishments. They also advised all cyber café owners to install CCTV cameras. At minimum, cafe owners are required to maintain a log book wherein they note down user information requiring patrons to provide name, home address, phone number and ID card in order to access the Internet. The proposed regulation in large cities foreshadows the enforcement of similar regulation across the country.

The former Prime Minister Tony Blair under the Department for Education promoted the opening of over 1,200 internet cafés across England in 2001 in an attempt to bridge the digital divide and boost online learning. "The digital revolution is here to stay and the UK online centres will ensure that anyone who wants to can gain access to technology," according to Secretary of Education David Blunkett in 2001.

TODAY: Scotland Yard is advising administrators of public Web spaces in London to periodically check their customers' files and keep an eye out for suspicious activity. The initiative, rolled out in March 2010, is part of the government's counterterrorism strategy - and aimed at reminding cafe owners that authorities are ready to hear from them if they have concerns about their Internet users. It is up to cafe owners to decide if or how to monitor what customers left on their computers. Police say Internet cafe owners should remain vigilant in part because the venues have often been used by terrorists and other criminals in an attempt to evade detection.

Even Myanmar thought this Web technology would be a means to attract some foreign investment in value-added services. After a visit by former premier Khin Nyunt to Bangkok in September 2001, a US$12 million deal was struck between Shin Satellite of Thailand and the Burmese semi-state enterprise 'Bagan Cybertech', which was by no circumstance partly owned by the son of the premier. Bagan Cybertech was to be the ISP for a chain of Internet cafés with ambitions to interconnect the nation.

TODAY: In Myanmar Senior General Than Shwe under the current Military Junta issued the Electronic Act whereby Internet cafe owners are required to take screenshots every five minutes on every computer station and also be prepared to provide every user's ID card number, telephone number, and address if the police requested them. The cafe owners are now strictly forbidden to help a customer create an email account, particularly on Gmail, or to use a proxy, under penalty of being closed down. Soldiers and military intelligence conduct random raids of the cafés. According to local sources, the government may be planning to once again cut off Internet access during the Fall 2010 elections to have control over the dissemination of news.

However, the most stunning expansion occurred in China between 1998 through 2002 where Internet cafés were being opened at such an alarming rate as to escape the ability of the Chinese government to regulate them. It was only in June, 2002 due to a deadly fire in an Internet café fire in Beijing that a new regulation was passed giving the Ministry of Culture full responsibility for licensing Internet cafés. Despite ensuing nationwide campaigns to close down unlicensed operators there remain now over 185,000 Internet cafés in China.

TODAY: China holds the world's largest Internet user population of 380 million. Surveillance is is the most sophisticated and wide-spread as over 40,000 members of the cyber-police are constantly scanning the Web and cyber cafés in particular. Their patrons are required to produce an ID and have their photo taken. A log of their connections is maintained and made available to the authorities and patrons' activities are privately monitored in real time by café managers.

About one-quarter of the Chinese population use the web regularly and 42% log on at Internet cafes in major cities and in the countryside. These hot spots that enable web connectivity have become hot spots for another reason in China. Internet café owners unscrupulously entice young teens to visit their establishments by providing preloaded porn videos along with free access to gambling sites and game sites. These activities are considered unproductive in a society in which productivity has made China a world leader in the manufacture of goods.

For this reason, use of the Internet - especially among the young in cyber cafes, is considered fun - play, not work. China actively shuts down Internet hot spots (at some significant expense to the government, BTW, since each cyber cafe generates an average of $150 USD monthly in tax revenues), and sends Internet addicts to "re-education" facilities where these young people are subjected to physical and emotional abuse from counselors and peers.

While most Internet cafes still advertise "Internet, Print, Fax" as their core services, many have materialized into mere online gaming arcades with a target market demographic focused aggressively on teenagers. It is not the first time this controversy has popped up. In the 70's pinball parlors were all the rage and similar to the Internet cafés of today, they were opening up in every small town around the world.

These pinball parlors and their evolution into gaming arcades stirred a great public policy storm. The gaming halls came under attack from concerned parents, community associations, and the police. The arcades were attracting criminal pursuits including drug sales, prostitution, fencing stolen property, and other excessive activities. Unscrupulous arcade operators took advantage of the lack of zoning and regulation to begin opening up arcades right next to city schools. The growing outcry finally prompted most municipalities to lay down the law by licensing locations and placing restrictions on teenagers under 16 from entering this arcades during school hours or without being accompanied by a parent. Penalties levied on arcade operators who violated these guidelines became similar to those for selling tobacco or alcohol to minors.
The prevailing opinion on pinball machines at the time was that: "The machine itself is not immoral nor evil"; it is only the dodgy profiteering of the arcade operators that is the danger.

The vast majority of Internet cafés are in reality now centers of entertainment as opposed to aspirations for places of innovation, inspiration, and self-development.

Now the United States sees Internet cafés in strip malls becoming an increasingly popular destination to play for cash. These cafés feature Sweepstakes gaming, where customers are technically buying Internet time to play games rather than paying directly for the games themselves. The cards keep track of winnings, and people who come out ahead can trade them for cash or prizes. Many cafés offer online gambling run by overseas companies that wire money electronically. The cafe owners are testing the definition of illegal gambling and always finding some new loophole within current gambling laws. The U.S. federal government has yet to fully regulate not to mention legalize and tax online gambling. As in China's case, these gambling parlors under the facade of Internet cafés are popping up faster than the officials can deal with.

There are a few enlightened academics and public officials who have the view that the best solution is to begin categorizing Internet cafés as either 'entertainment-focused' or 'education-focused' and begin heavily taxing the former and subsidizing the latter. It certainly would be much clearer if these establishments were renamed as "Online Gaming Parlors" or "Cyber Casinos" giving governments the discretion to regulate them for what they truly are.

So assuming the Internet is "not immoral, nor evil" and that current cafés passing as gaming and gambling parlors are categorized and regulated as such; you are still left with cafés that could be used for perceived nefarious online activities. These activities (including but not limited to terrorism, subversion, violating moral norms, and political dissent) continue to raise concerns and the ire of governments.

Whether autocratic or open, all governments are escalating their surveillance and detention tactics in response to these concerns and in turn curbing inspiration for learning and deadening the original goal to create a climate for innovation. Anonymity is no longer accepted in societies filled with mistrust. Across the world we are seeing café managers being required to monitor their customers' personal data along with a list of the websites they consult and to alert authorities if they observe any suspicious activities. Security agents may then catch Web users in the act and take them for an interrogation. Certainly not a sustainable business model for any operator!

One might be tempted to apply the same solution recommended earlier and categorize these types of establishments for specific regulations and branding. In polling some Internet cafe operators it would seem that the "The Tethered Goat" may be the most apt name. Wherein said cafés are merely means to lure and capture subversive citizens. Internet cafe operators further bemused that they would then be provided with the manual on how to handle and care for their goats.

However this solution has its limitations, the experts as flouted in the preeminent script on this subject, "Raising Goats for Dummies", actually recommend to avoid tethering one's goat. Here is the excerpt:

"A tethered goat is like a piece of cheese in a mousetrap. The goat is bait for coyotes, cougars, dogs, or other predators. When you tether your goat you put them at risk. Because goats are browsers, they won't stand still while on a rope. Goats may hang or choke themselves with a chain or a rope." The manual goes on to recommend incarceration as an alternative: "Don't tether your goats, instead, build them a proper fence...and supervise them or get them a guardian."

What's the point to all this? The key idea is that keeping cafés open makes governments behave like "Big Brother". Even some governments who don't want to.

In George Orwell's 1984, the gatheing place of dissidents is the infamous haunt named the 'Chestnut Tree Café', which was always kept open, under the watchful eye of Big Brother, and never closed. The end of the book finds the main character, Winston, a shell of a man, completely succumbed to the will of Big Brother. He and his former flame Julia no longer love each other; after the mutual betrayals in Room 101, this is impossible for both of them. He is essentially waiting for his death. As he sits in the Chestnut Tree Café, musing distractedly (but never rebelliously) on the course of his life, ...the telescreen plays this song:

"Under the spreading chestnut tree
I sold you and you sold me
There lie they, and here lie we
Under the spreading chestnut tree"

The lyrics are taken from a nursery rhyme of the time Orwell was growing up ("The Chestnut Tree" by Glen Miller 1939), but changed quite purposefully and meaningfully. The original lyrics went like this: "Underneath the spreading chestnut tree/ I loved him and he loved me/ There I used to sit up on his knee/ ´Neath the spreading chestnut tree." Switching the word "loved" to "sold" reflects the Party's intent to destroy emotional relationships, and the expectation of everyone to do the right thing and turn their fellow citizens over to the thought police if they believed they were dissidents. The changed words "lie" reflect the fear and mistrust prevalent in Winston's world as one is never certain what or whom to believe. While everyone accepts lies and tells lies, in the end and regardless of how well people hide their thoughts, they will be caught.

Let's recap the 'Top5' issues we have today:

(1) Internet cafés continue to "extend" their business models to highly profitable gambling operations. Governments play an escalating cat and mouse game to close unlicensed operators and plug legislative loopholes.

(2) From Kafka-like internet addiction centers in China to urgent pleas from a Bishop in Ghana, it is evident that the world's teenagers have now become a highly desirable target market for online gaming by unscrupulous café operators. Community outrage and government enforcement intensifies around the globe.

(3) Comprehensive surveillance and profiling in Internet cafés is becoming standard practice across the globe. As governments step up the monitoring of Internet cafés as an integral part of their counter-terrorism and anti-dissident strategies, the barefaced invasion of personal privacy is riling up anti-government activists and privacy advocates. The concept of net neutrality -- the principle that Internet users should be able to access any web content they want, post their own content, and use any applications they choose, without restrictions or limitations - will be defined only by local governing policies.

(4) Current government policies put much of the profiling responsibility and financial burden of installing surveillance devices on to the café operators themselves. For accommodating operators, the added management and investment overhead to comply is costly - not to mention that the list of compliance requirements is only getting longer. Add to it the decrease in business as patrons are turned off by the intrusions on their privacy, and you have a very strained business model for most obedient Internet café operators. In fact, the declining margins on traditional service may incent operators to seek out gaming and gambling to stay profitable!

(5) The cost to Governments on a national and local level to regulate and enforce compliance is growing. The tax revenue contributions from standard Internet café operations is not significant and the higher yielding proceeds from gambling and gaming operations is usually not reported and fraught with social conflicts within communities. The regulations being passed today will only diminish the more profitable operations while increasing the cost of monitoring and enforcement.

Internet cafés have failed as a tool for public policy. Governments should invest in specifically designed innovation centers to promote e-literacy, build human capital, and broaden access to information technology.

Perhaps it matters not, if we are to believe Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg that "privacy is dead" and Apple's Steve Jobs that "the PC era is at end"; what Internet cafes will be left with is merely a simple "telescreen" device that allows us to access our data, applications, and social networks in the cloud. The device would be equipped with an 'always on' front facing motion-eye camera and electronic keyboards with biometric detection. All transactions, posts, messages, and "friending" can be effectively, and unobtrusively monitored through cloud computing. Gambling, gaming, or any added activities are access restricted based on the person's identity and location. The log books, CCTV cameras, and maybe even the Internet cafe operators themselves - all gone. All is secure.

"At Chestnut Tree cafe word comes over the telescreen that Oceania has won a major victory against Eurasia (with which it is back at war) and that she now has complete control over Africa. Winston is just as triumphantly excited as everyone else, and he gazes up at the portrait of Big Brother with new understanding. At last, he loves Big Brother. "