Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Governing the Internet
Captain Ed relates that now the UN wants to take control of the internet, because as we all know, the internet has been an utter failure up to now. As Houlin Zhao, representing that perennial defender of free speech, China, says "the whole world is looking for a better solution to internet governance".
Captain Ed:
All one needs to do is to look around the General Assembly to understand which government rules will get "more respected". The UN mostly consists of dictatorships and autocracies, which have little use for the free speech and open information that the Internet provides people all over the world. A free Internet threatens their power and their oppressive regimes. Nothing would please them more than to get their hands on the engines of the Internet in order to suppress the information that would inspire their subjects to throw off their shackles and claim freedom for themselves.
Let me put it to all in this light. Will we trust the same organization that put Libya and Cuba in charge of human rights and Syria in charge of counterterrorism to manage the Internet and safeguard free speech?
