I know what I’m advocating is controversial. But I have a good reason for the US to retain “control” of the internet.
In today’s Washington Times there’s a story about the US again stating that it intends to keep control of the internet. It wants to fight giving control to the United Nations or another entity:
“We want to make sure the private sector leads and the Internet continues to be a reservoir of great innovation, and that governments continue to focus on enabling the growth of the Internet, and not of controlling its use,” Ambassador David A. Gross told The Washington Times in an interview.
Let’s face it: the internet works right now. Sure, it isn’t perfect, but it has been responsible for a large part of the world’s growth over the past decade. Putting the internet into the hands of a dysfunctional group like the UN would put this in jeopardy. I’m not saying the US government isn’t also dysfunctional, but so far it has managed the internet well.
Beyond the internet “working” now, the bigger issue is what might happen if a country like China has a say in how the internet is operated. The Washington Times article quotes an ambassador from China, Sha Zukang, saying “This situation is very undemocratic, unfair and unreasonable.” Um, OK. Just this week China announced that it was issuing new rules for what news its citizens can read online. In other words, anything critical of the Chinese government or its beliefs will be censored.
We’ll all be in trouble if backward-looking governments like China get more say in how the internet is run.
Leave a Comment