04 September 2016

KEEP THE INTERNET OPEN AND FREE

If you appreciate the open freedom of the Internet then you must be concerned with something that is about to happen at the end of this month unless it is stopped. The Obama administration intends to give up management of the Internet and turn that function over to an international body, i.e. the United Nations. The American government does not, even now, directly control the Internet. It is managed by a private nonprofit NGO through the US Department of Commerce, which is about to be set loose to fall under “international” control. 

A substantial majority of my readers live outside of the United States and this should concern them as well. Anyone who believes in the free flow of ideas and information should appreciate that under the present system this freedom is absolute. There is no interference and no restrictions at all. Even in countries that attempt and sometimes succeed in censoring the Internet there is no control of information that can still appear elsewhere. This will certainly change if the UN or equivalent body gets ahold of it. There are repressive regimes all over the world that would like nothing better than to be able to censor and control information flows on the Internet. As I wrote two years ago when this noxious proposition first surfaced: 

One could argue that the Internet has long since become an international phenomenon and it therefore ought to be under the purview of an international body. However, there are many other instances of global standards being maintained by a particular country. For example Britain and Greenwich Mean Time, as well as other standards and measure. It is thus, not unprecedented for standards that originated in a particular country to be maintained by that country. Only a basic hostility to the US can account for a wish to change this. 
Furthermore the record of international bodies is less than impressive. There are many countries clamoring for various forms of censorship, and this is the surest path to that end. It will also provide the pretext for exclusion, i.e. of Israel, as has happened in other international bodies. How about Islamic, or any other restrictive standards? How about erasing something because some regime somewhere finds it offensive? This is effectively taking the part of repressive regimes rather than the people on the street. The possibilities for mischief are endless, but what is certain is that it will be the end of the wide open Internet. Some governments may   oppose the US hold on the Internet, but the people don’t because they trust it to be free and open. That will end the minute the US gives up control.


That moment has arrived. It is vital that the independence of the Internet be preserved. Otherwise dark forces will begin to interfere and call for the suppression of information, or worse, the promulgation of disinformation. All those who love liberty must make their voices heard and stop this transfer, or failing that, in the worst case make certain that ironclad safeguards are put in place to assure freedom of expression. The record of international bodies is not good in this respect, and we must be sanguine about the prospects if this transition occurs. The Internet has thrived because the present circumstances have allowed it to. If this “international” oversight materializes you can be certain that it will soon degenerate into control, changing from passive, detached supervision to direct, active management of content, domains, and expression. We cannot trust international safeguards given the atrocious record of hypocrisy at the UN with regard to “human rights,” and the huge discrepancy between the UN charter and the practices of its membership. The safest course is to keep the Internet exactly as it is now, where it originated and developed and has come to serve all of humanity without distinction.