David Harvey: Controlling the Internet

Disclosure of interest. I write this as a member of InternetNZ, although I do not agree with its direction of travel or the way in which it has drifted from its original role. I am also a member of the Free Speech Union.

I formerly taught Law and Information Technology at the University of Auckland Law School, where the domain name system and the issues surrounding Internet governance and control featured strongly, and those issues have been discussed fully in the various editions of my text Internet.law.nz – selected issues. Much of this article draws on matters that were the subject of that course, and which have sharpened as the years and the technology have progressed.

David Harvey: Stanford's Crusade

Policy, Passion and Restricting Access to Social Media

Introduction

The Herald’s front page for 22 July 2026 left nothing to interpretation: “I’m standing up for kids against insidious tech,” Erica Stanford declared. The timing was convenient. The article arrived hard on the heels of the paper’s own “Under the Influence” series — an unashamed, unapologetic piece of advocacy about how social media is said to be harming our youth.

David Harvey: Searching in the Dark

How three government agencies are ignoring twenty years of e-discovery technology — and using their own backwardness against OIA requesters

Preface

In an article published in the New Zealand Herald in February 2026 I considered the operation of the Official Information Act. I observed that avoidance strategies persist: repeated requests for “clarification” that reset statutory clocks, fragmented record-keeping, and opaque decision-making. The cumulative effect is delay, frustration, and diminished public confidence. I also noted that most records are now electronic, searchable, and capable of rapid review using modern tools, including AI-assisted search and e-discovery techniques. Claims that requests are unduly burdensome because they involve hundreds of documents ring hollow when compared to contemporary information-management capabilities. Indeed, the digital paradigm should have made compliance easier, not harder.

David Harvey: What Should We Do About Bad Arguments

A Reply to Simon Wilson

I thought when Simon Wilson stopped writing his weekly column for the Herald on Tuesdays that he might fade from my consciousness. Not so. He now writes a fortnightly column for the Listener and ironically his articles feature on the page opposite mine. Even more ironically, his page is often positioned to the right of the fold, mine to the left. Go figure.

David Harvey: The VPN Ban

One of the problems faced by lawmakers is that the laws they make can only be enforced within the jurisdiction. That is what is referred to as the principle of territoriality. Laws do not have an extraterritorial effect. A person who steals something from a supermarket in Sydney cannot be prosecuted for theft in the New Zealand Courts. Why? Because the offence did not take place within the territorial jurisdiction of New Zealand.

David Harvey: The Unfinished Pursuit

Reflections on the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence

Introductory

Jonathan Ayling wrote an article in the Herald published on 2 July 2026. He questions whether the promise of the American Dream will survive and that it must renew itself, returning to the truths of its founding.

I have written elsewhere about how it is that Jefferson wrote of his self-evident truths and why there has not been a similar mission statement in New Zealand.

In this article I attempt to answer some of Jonathan’s concerns, suggesting that the American Dream is a work in progress and that the road is still being built. Like all great works there are stumbles on the way.

David Harvey: Skynet on the Brain

How an Old Literary Fear and a 1984 Blockbuster Are Quietly Writing Our AI Policy

When a senator warns that artificial intelligence could “end humanity,” when a tech executive testifies that we are “building a god we can’t control,” or when a newspaper runs a stock image of a chrome skull with glowing red eyes above a sober article about model evaluation standards, something curious is happening.

David Harvey: Reading Between the Lines

How the Human Rights Commission’s Trojan Horse Deepfake Submission Smuggles In a Regime of Pre-Emptive Speech Control

The gift at the gate

The Greeks did not take Troy by force. They took it by leaving a gift the defenders could not bring themselves to refuse — and by hiding inside it the army that would do the actual work. The Human Rights Commission’s submission on the Deepfake Digital Harm and Exploitation Bill follows the same design.

David Harvey: A Good Bill and a Bad Detour

Why InternetNZ's call for a digital regulator should be resisted

The Deepfake Digital Harm and Exploitation Bill is one of the more sensible pieces of legislation to come before Parliament in some time. It does one thing, and it does it well. It should pass. What should not pass — and what should not be smuggled in on its back — is the far larger regulatory apparatus that InternetNZ has used its submission to promote.

The Bill gets it right

David Harvey: A Regulator's Impulse

Hasten Slowly on Social Media Restrictions

This article is a companion piece to that entitled “A Regulator’s Reflex” which can be found here. It deals with the issue of social media access restrictions and explains the danger inherent in the proposition - to paraphrase an old saying - “Legislate in haste; repent at leisure”

Stuff reported on 16 June some interesting comments by Education Minister Erica Stanford, who now seems to be leading the charge for what has been described as a social media ban for under 16 year olds.

David Harvey: The Regulator's Reflex

Why the State's worldwide hunger to govern internet platforms should worry us more than the platforms themselves

There is a revealing little scene in this week’s New Zealand political news. The Media Minister, Paul Goldsmith, told a select committee that he goes on phoning the chairs of the public broadcasters at “random times” to see what is going on, keeps no notes, makes no recording, carries — in his own phrase — no “little notebook,” and assumes the chairs keep no record either.

David Harvey: A Nuclear Conversation

A conversation the Prime Minister would rather not have

There must be something in the air in the Prime Minister’s suite of the Beehive — a virus of omnipotence and omniscience that seems to infect whoever occupies the office. Jacinda Ardern demonstrated it in spades, with her authoritarian kindness and her government’s self-appointment as the nation’s single source of truth. Christopher Luxon now ventures forth in the same spirit, shutting down any debate on the nuclear question before it can begin.

What he does not appear to understand is that the nuclear issue reaches well beyond the Bomb. Nor does he seem aware of the actual limits of New Zealand’s “anti-nuclear” legislation, which does not prohibit the peaceful use of nuclear energy at all. But the more troubling thing is the arrogance of trying to close a conversation down.

David Harvey: The Courts and Climate Change

The Smith v Fonterra case was brought by climate change spokesperson for the Iwi Chairs Forum Michael Smith (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu) against several major emitters. Smith was attempting to use tort law to address the diffuse, cumulative harms of climate change to his property, culture, and iwi.

David Harvey: Drawing a Line

Personal Beliefs Should be of no Interest to Professional Regulators

Professional regulatory bodies have very wide powers. Some argue that those powers, including mandatory training in areas not directly related to the profession in question, are too wide.

A Regulated Professions Neutrality Bill, which will shortly be released for discussion, addresses those issues.

This article discusses aspects of the proposed Bill. The proposed Bill may be found here.

David Harvey: The Culture of Complaint

An Institutional Problem

I have a book on my shelf entitled “Culture of Complaint” by Robert Hughes. I purchased it in September 1993 shortly after it was published.

It was an interesting book because although it argued primarily about problems in the United States of America, the issues Hughes describes resonate today. The book was prescient in that respect.

Robert Hughes was an Australian-born art critic, writer and producer of television documentaries. He was art editor for Time magazine and is known to television audiences for his TV series on modern art entitled “The Shock of the New” which was brilliant.

David Harvey: Online Media Regulation - Continued

On Friday 15 May 2026, after a debate in Parliament, Minister Erica Stanford announced that the Bill introduced that would restrict access by under 16’s to certain social media platforms would be “paused”.

There was some discussion about whether or not this could in fact be done unilaterally. The Bill is on the agenda and to stop Parliament voting on the bill, the Government would have to rely on Opposition MPs agreeing to an 11th hour change to Parliament’s agenda.

But the reason for the “pause” is interesting and concerning. Stanford’s office said:

David Harvey: Two Tribes, One Argument - Salmond, Dutta, and the Grammar of Progressive Polemic

An analysis of two recent New Zealand opinion pieces, their shared themes, intellectual methods, and rhetorical weaknesses

Bryce Edwards of the Democracy Project runs an excellent daily news briefing as part of the Democracy Project. The briefing consists of news stories organized by topic and with links. The bias is towards legacy media (a term in intend to use when I am being polite about Mainstream Media. I use the later term when I am being critical) but alternative media features as well. Half of the site is free to all. The other half is for paid subscribers. It is well worth the subscription.

David Harvey: The Demise of the Broadcasting Standards Authority?

An announcement. But will there be action?

On 6 May 2026 the Minister for Broadcasting, Mr. Paul Goldsmith, announced that the Broadcasting Standards Authority would be disestablished.

A process had been put in place to wind down the BSA and investigate self-regulation options. There is, of course, a little more to it than that. The BSA was created by the Broadcasting Act 1989 and it is referred to in a number of statutes. There will be legislative work involved as well.

David Harvey: A Framework For Media Regulation In The Digital Age

A standalone proposal for the reform of media and communications regulation in New Zealand

Preliminary Note

The Minister for Broadcasting, Paul Goldsmith, announced earlier today that the BSA is going to be disestablished. He favours an industry based model for ongoing media regulation and believes that the task can be taken up by the NZ Media Council. That is all very well but the Council requires additional funding. Perhaps the funds allocated to the BSA can be redirected to the Media Council.

David Harvey: The Word that Swallowed Everything

This could be seen as a companion piece to “The Art of Not Deciding” which I published on 29 April 2026. That article dealt with decision paralysis. One aspect of that is fear and accompanying that is a desire to stay safe – from criticism, condemnation. Better to do nothing than do something and be criticised for it.

In this article I look at the issue of safety and the word “safe” and how that word has been weaponised.

Let me begin with a word. Not a law, not a regulation, not even a policy — just a word.

“Safe.”