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Internet & Society: The Technologies and Politics of Control (Spring 2019)
Resource 2 . 1 . 1

“Battle of the Clipper Chip” by Stephen Levy, New York Times (1994).

John Bowers

Tensions between the government and the technology-using public over cryptography and digital censorship are nothing new. The 1990s saw what many have now termed “Crypto Wars I,” a clash between government officials fearful of encryption-driven “warrant-free zones” – datastores inaccessible to law enforcement – and a broad coalition of technologists and civil libertarians. This article explores the “cypherpunk” movement, a wing of this coalition which vigorously resisted controls on cryptographic technology. How do the cypherpunk movement’s ideals and motivations reflect the internet’s founding principles (decentralization, layering, generativity, open-sourcing, etc.)? Does the digital surveillance environment look different today?

“Battle of the Clipper Chip” by Stephen Levy, New York Times (1994).

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