Government control of the internet is a seemingly never-ending battle
between government and its supporters on the one hand, usually when it
suits the supporters in their battle of choice, and opponents on the
other.
The Financial Times has published an article looking at the topic,
starting with WikiLeaks and the "unstoppable stream of disclosures has
intensified efforts by governments to exert more control over
information and the complex technology underpinning its availability on
the internet. From the UN to the self-governing body overseeing web
addresses, countries are working to assert more authority, with some
success."
One area the article looks at is new generic Top Level Domains, with the
FT saying that governmental complaints have been one of the main
reasons for the delays in their introduction.
"Official US complaints helped to delay the expected debut of many more"
new gTLDs. "Big companies were concerned they would have to register
scores of new websites to protect their brands from squatters. They
complained to the US commerce department, which wrote a public letter to
Icann. Icann backed down, saying it would meet a committee made up of
more than 100 countries to hear their views."
Another area has been the United Nations aim "to convene a governmental
group to advise it on how to restructure the Internet Governance Forum."
This decision drew complaints from ICANN and Vint Cerf, now Google's chief internet evangelist and formerly ICANN chair.
"This structure that seems to have been settled upon really takes away
the participatory strength of the non-government stakeholders. If they
move to the mode that is proposed, that's the first step in trying to
create a governance organisation that takes actions - and while I can
understand the appeal, especially for some governments, I don't think it
bodes well," Mr Cerf said.
Another area drawing the interest of governments is security, even more
so since WikiLeaks has commenced releasing diplomatic cables involving
the US government but also with the growing threat of hackers to
national security and infrastructure. As the FT notes, China, among
other countries has been censoring their media for a long time, by the
age of the internet.
"This momentum toward securitisation is helping legitimise and pave the
way for greater government involvement in cyberspace," the founders of
OpenNet Initiative, a research body, wrote recently in a journal
affiliated with the US National Endowment for Democracy, reported the
FT.
To read this article in The Financial Times in full, see:
www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3cb52054-12aa-11e0-b4c8-00144feabdc0.html
It may be necessary to register to access the article if you are not registered with the FT, or trying using
your preferred search engine's news section for keywords such as "icann"
and clicking on the link to the article title "Concern at governments’
moves to control web" from there.
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