Control of the Internet and the Fear of the world.

Control of the Internet and the Fear of the world.

The World Wide Web is now in a tangled web of politics. This is not the first time that the future of the internet has been dragged out kissed and tossed around by politicians. Remember the time that vice president Al Gore was quoted as saying that he has done some good to America by discovering the internet.
As the just concluded summit on the future of the World Wide Web ended in Tunisia North Africa, the future and control of the internet still comfortably remains in the hands of the United States. The aim of this conference attended by about 170 countries is to look at ways of using information communication technologies to help improve living standards in some of the world's poorest nations.
I am still wondering why these delegates are spending their precious time discussing about the control of the internet where we have a lot of other pressing issues to talk about. Precious pressing issues like the environment, poverty in developing countries, racism , manipulation of the concept of democracy by dictators in developing countries and in fact many more. These issues should deserve better attention than the issue of the internet control. Why are some people afraid of the US control of the Internet? If the United States discovered the internet and popularized it, what stops Washington from having a better say in its affairs? Is the US doing a bad job in its administration and control so far?
Is it better for the United States to control the internet than for North Korea or China to control it?
I understand the fears of other countries against the United States dominance and control of the internet. These fears are more symbolic and it transcends from the often unpredictable nature of the United States international relations.
Many countries not in the good books of Washington are afraid their activities may be monitored, infiltrated and even blocked off by the United States. Do you think the intelligence networks of countries like Syria, North Korea, China, Zimbabwe etc will be comfortable that the US is in control of cyber space?
These fears may be reasonable. However, we have been using the internet for some time now and no body will recall having any major problem. I personally cannot remember any major issue (problem) with the World Wide Web apart from the Y2K fear of 2000. Even that fear of Y2K passed through without any major incident.
So that means that the US is doing a good job in the administration of cyber space. Let us say the truth and the truth shall set us free. The truth is the fact that the internet has been well managed so far.
May be in future there may be genuine needs for its reformation but today I don’t see any reason for that reform.
Why drag the United Nations into this? I read the address of President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe on this issue. He just like some other countries is calling the United Nations to be given exclusive control of the activities in cyber space. This sounds like a good idea on paper. The United Nations is saddled with many responsibilities and is even unable to handle most of its obligations so why increase its work load by adding another extra responsibility.
So let the world leave the internet alone and let the United States handle that. Why are we trying to fix what has not broken yet?

Thanks
Kennedy Kelechi Halams

Kelechi is a faculty at Baker College in Flint Michigan and a PhD scholar at Northcentral University Prescott Arizona. He wrote this piece from Houston Texas.

 

should be on political or off-topic board

Your post may or may not be of merit, but regardless this should be moved to the political or off-topic board, IMHO.

Matt

 

The US didn´t discover the Internet, but it envisioned first the aplictions it could have. If any other country or institution controls the internet it would lose all credibility and reliability. Imagine the UN Security Council of the deciding on some of the issues the use of internet raises, for instance. Or Castro and Chaves having a say ..... Please, spare us ......

 

Wrong...

The USA did in fact develop the system that became the Internet. It derived from a system developed for the DOD . The general protocal for the World Wide Web was developed by a Brit.

The OP's post is filled with incorrect information, not to say it is purposeful since most of the debate on the issue is based on false information. Heck, many delegates to the UN are functional illiterates in general much less about the Internet so paying attention to their opinions on this matter is a complete waste of time.

No one person or nation can shut down the Internet by flipping a switch. That is not how it works. People seem to think it is one huge client-server network. Shut down the server and you have shut down the network. It is a big peer to peer network. If one ISP goes down the others remain. Countries have and do control their countries portion of the Internet. Having control of the infrastructure in their country allows on to filter what enters their system. Granted, there are ways around that and that is why you have country's screaming they want more "international" control. Their tool for this is the UN, you know the body that has Syria and Libya on its human rights council. What a farce.

What the US controls (or a company for the US) is the assigning of domain names and procedures thereof. It isn't that big a deal but it is not something that should be handled by a committee and definately not by a committee from the UN. That agency can't even handle its own internal functions so the less in their hands the better....

 

In the world of the computer/progrmming idealist, the Internet would exist without controls, unfortunately not possible in the real world.

I certainly think that it would preferable for it not to be under the control of any political or traditional business interest and it should be recognised that the USA is not and is certainly not seen as the universal 'good guy' of its own perception.

For example there are concerns (with the US and elsewhere) about the quality and independance of its media. (see www.prwatch.org ) and there have been many incidents over the years of US actions which can at best be described as amoral, not aimed merely at its supposed enemies but also to its proclaimed allies.

 

Wow..

OK, point out the perfect political entity in the world to which we should give this responsibility. You're right our allies are so bad off for knowing us.

Give me a break, our so called allies have mooched off the US for long enough.......