The Internet: “We Built It. We Paid For It. It’s Ours And We’re Going To Keep It.”

13 Nov, 2007 by John Hawkins

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The kleptocrats at the UN are still trying to cajole the United States into giving up control of the internet,

“When hundreds of technology experts from around the world gather here this week to hammer out the future of the Internet, the hottest issue won’t be spam, phishing or any of the other phenomena that bedevil users everywhere.

Instead, ending U.S. control over what’s become a global network will be at the top of the agenda for many of the more than 2,000 participants expected at the United Nations Internet Governance Forum, which begins Monday.

With the Internet now dominating nearly aspect of modern life, continued U.S. control of the medium has become a sensitive topic worldwide. In nations that try to control what people can see and hear, the Internet often is the only source of uncensored news and opinion.

U.S. officials say that keeping Internet functions under their control has protected that free flow of information and kept the Internet growing reliably.

Yet to many foreign government officials and technology gurus, the United States has too much control over a tool that’s used by more than 1.4 billion people worldwide. Brazil, China and other countries have proposed transferring oversight to an international body.

…Others worry, however, that transferring the administration of the Internet to the United Nations or another international body would make it vulnerable to censorship, especially by powerful countries such as China.

The most dramatic example of Internet censorship happened recently in Myanmar, when the ruling military junta cut Internet connections to stop dissident blogs and other sites that had distributed information about government repression in the wake of September’s crushed pro-democracy protests.

…”Our concern is that countries that have been the most vocal advocate of changing control of the Internet are not countries that support an open Internet,” said Leslie Harris, the president of the Center for Democracy & Technology, a nonprofit U.S. open-Internet advocacy group.

…”Should the U.N. gain control of the Internet,” the conservative U.S. research center the Heritage Foundation wrote on its Web site, “it would give meddlesome governments the opportunity to censor and regulate the medium until its usefulness as a vehicle for freedom of expression and international competition is crippled.”

…Theresa Swinehart, ICANN’s vice president of global and strategic participation, said the system had proved itself and warned that changes could threaten the Internet.

…U.S. government officials also argue that keeping the Internet under centralized control is best for users.

When the European Union suggested creating an intergovernmental body to oversee ICANN in 2005, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez responded forcefully.

“Burdensome, bureaucratic oversight is out of place in an Internet structure that has worked so well for many around the globe,” they said in a letter.”

Here’s a thought for all the people complaining about American control of the internet: We created the internet, we built it out, and we made it into a success. If you don’t like the fact that we control it, then you can kiss our American *sses.

So, all you weenies at the United Nations Internet Governance Forum can shake your little fists in the air impotently for as long as you want and rant about the United States, but it’s not going to make one iota of difference.

We’re not handing the internet over so you can tax it, so that petty UN bureaucrats can make themselves feel important by regulating it, and so that totalitarian nations like China, Myanmar, and Saudi Arabia can demand changes in the way that the net works to make it easier for them to control it.

That’s how it is and how it’s going continue to be — like it or not. So debate it all you like, it’s not going to make one bit of difference.