Public discussions have on the contrary always been highly regulated, by the editorial boards of television, radio, newspapers and magazines, and the government agencies which control them. Nonetheless these societies have not opted for a complete ban on pornographic material, nor for a complete ban of politically uncomfortable material. The mechanisms of social exclusion operate much more subtly. One of the problems the Net poses is that it is simultaneously a private and public communications medium. Therefore any intrusion on the public debate on the Net is immediately perceived as an intrusion on the private sphere.
Political discussions tend to become thoroughly confused when they touch on the Net.
The misconceptions are further intensified by the legislators' anxieties of the uncontrollability of a global communications system, which appears to escape the control of their nation based political instruments and conceptions. The main argument launched against John Perry Barlow's declaration of Cyberspace independence is indicative of this confusion. Barlow has been accused of a complete denial of the social reality of the construction of the Internet and its social rootedness. Local branches are developed by similar corporate and public bodies in other countries. Furthermore, the percentage of users connected to the Internet via independent Internet providers is relatively small.