The Quadrangle

Issue date: 3/8/06 Section: Arts & Entertainment

It seems that Big Brother is forever looming overhead. This time, however, it is not the government that poses the threat: instead, the danger comes in the form of Rupert Murdoch, media mogul, entrepreneur, and notorious conservative. Recently, Murdoch acquired yet another corporate interest to add to his ever-growing empire: Intermix Media, the parent company of MySpace.com. MySpace, an incredibly popular website with over 60 million users, is famous as a free social network for all. Used mostly by the age group between 14 and 34, the site includes links to music, videos, Internet games. It also allows its users to freely post a variety of personal photos and comment on their friends' profiles. Although there are other Internet sites akin to MySpace.com in its principle of social communication (for instance, Facebook.com and Xanga.com), none are as widely used.

The $580 million transaction between Murdoch and his company NewsCorp and Intermix occurred in July of this year. NewsCorp, which already owns a majority of the media networks in the United States and Australia (including DIRECTV, Harper Collins Publishers, the New York Post, and all of the Fox television networks and its affiliations), has become a major corporate presence in both the entertainment and business worlds.

Murdoch's pervasive ownership and the control he exercises over of his ever-burgeoning domain was recently the subject of the documentary OutFoxed. The project, produced and directed by Robert Greenwald and promoted through MoveOn.org, accused the mogul of-among other things-polluting pure journalism in order to promote a political agenda. The film made clear that Murdoch (originally an Australian, but made a United States citizen in 1985 purportedly for business reasons) has taken an active interest in politics in America, as any who watch Fox News may attest. That network, the home of Bill O'Reilly and his talk show, has a clear right-wing slant.

Of course, this is a nation where free speech is not only defended by principle, but maintained by law. Yet considering Murdoch's reputation, members of MySpace worry whether or not they will be able to continue to use the website as freely as they have in previous years.

In a January edition of The New York Times, Julie Bosman reported that after Murdoch's acquisition, MySpace users were already being restricted from YouTube.com, a site that shares videos and makes it easy for people to embed media in their profiles. In addition, on March 2, 2006, MySpace publicly announced that it will be tightening its security measures. The website's CEO, Chris DeWolfe, stated that MySpace will be adding a technology that will screen both its users and their activities. This move comes after an outbreak of complaints from parents and authorities on the unsafe environment that the Internet community can create. Recently, multiple arrests have been made of pedophiles that use the site to lure unsuspecting adolescents. MySpace's official stance thus far has been to distance itself from the events, publicly declaring that the site itself has no involvement in such crimes. Myspace also urges parents to spread awareness to their children about the dangers that the Internet may present. Still, many continue to hold the company culpable.

Whether or not this latest action will silence such criticism is perhaps outweighed by its reaction and effect on MySpace users. According to its terms, MySpace reserves the right to modify its policies and procedures at any time without the consent of its members. The question, then, is will Murdoch risk alienating the website's teenage users (who will react vehemently when their activities are censored) with further restrictions? Or better yet, as liberals worry, will he use it to impress his personal political agenda on the young minds of the future? After all, he is a member himself.

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