Let’s Stop Pretending That all Countries Deserve Equal Control over the Internet

It’s a dangerous time for the Internet. A group of countries including China, Russia, India and the Arab countries have been pushing for UN control of those sections currently headed by the US based ICANN. If this happens, these dictatorships and free speech abusers (India included) will get to have a say in how the Internet is run and therefore make their practices seem legitimate.

Not all Countires Deserve Control over the Internet
Not all Countires Deserve Control over the Internet

As of now, such countries already restrict free speech online as required by their laws. But as long as the US is in control, such practices lack true International legitimacy when measured up against the US’s own high free speech standards. Giving them some control over Internet governance will endorse their behavior and wipe out currently prevailing expectations that the Internet is a free medium and one of the greatest achievements of mankind where the virtual world is free from geographic boundaries and from the gritty real world.

Some feel that it’s not good for one country like the US to govern the Internet. But let’s drop the political correctness here. The truth is that not all countries deserve control over the Internet. We tend to not pass judgment over certain cultures with outdated and backward policies, but we should! Mankind’s specialty is learning from others. There’s nothing wrong with telling other countries that they need to buck up and improve.

Saudi Arabia wants to implement a universal ID system that people will have to use when commenting on anything online including private blogs. China and Russia of course want the entire world to sanction their censorship regimes. Countries like India will demand that just because they cannot handle sensitive topics and offense against religion, the whole world must stoop down to their level and keep mum as well.

Let’s be clear that the US itself has hardly been an awesome steward of the Internet. The biggest problem with the US is its stand on copyright infringement and how it can sometimes go overboard in shutting down sites. But those sites can fight back through the courts. The US public is vociferous enough to make the government tread carefully. SOPA was a brilliant example of netizens in the US coming together to target their politicians. Will that happen if the Internet is under UN control? Will Arab citizens or Chinese citizens stand up for their freedoms and take to the streets to prevent a law from being passed? Never. We Indians of course are not at all involved in our democratic process. Crap laws will be passed and then maybe we’ll demonstrate against them. But a huge nationwide protest to prevent a law? Never.

The US is the devil we know. The UN is not answerable to ordinary people like us. Only governments get to vote. Even in a democracy, it’s difficult enough to get the government to listen to the voice of the people. How do you think it will be when a whole group of them have to be convinced? With democracies, bills are passed after public discussion. The text of the bill is put up so that people can read it. Even if they choose not to, it’s there. Resolutions in the UN are passed in closed door meetings. They don’t give a damn about what people think. And why should they? They’re not elected by people after all!

The openness and transparency of the Internet is precious. It crosses all borders and represents the peak of human civilization till date. It allows us access to everything. Individuals have to learn the skills of taking what they want and ignoring the rest. This is good. You can’t go crying to the government if you see something you don’t like. Close the page, or launch your own counterattack online. None of this government censorship crap.

The bottom line is that we’ve progressed tremendously over thousands of years and freedom of expression is one of the pinnacles of that development which gives the Internet its tremendous power. We have something precious and we can’t let backward and authoritarian regimes like China and Russia and emotionally immature governments like India have a say in how this precious resource is managed.

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8 thoughts on “Let’s Stop Pretending That all Countries Deserve Equal Control over the Internet”

  1. I beg to disagree here. And the reason why is “For the Sake of Democracy”. Internet is something that affects people all over the world, across the borders; therefore democratically, every country should have an equitable (population wise) say in the functioning of the internet irrespective of their view of free speech, just as, in a democratic country, (including the US), every citizen has an equal right to vote, irrespective of his/her ideology, qualification, intelligence, or anything. So, if the people of a country are corrupt, the government is also corrupt (and rightly so). That is what’s happening in India. On similar lines, if people want the internet to be censored, then be it !

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    • In reply to Rajat

      I must disagree. Here we have to admit that some countries are superior to others. We have evolved over thousands of years to a state where we have free speech in many places. The world as a whole needs to recognize that no one has the authority to clamp down on other’s thoughts and opinions and countries who do that to their citizens are not worthy of having a say in how the Internet is run.

      I feel that the UN’s “one country, one vote” policy needs to be changed according to their ranking in the freedom index. Those countries which are less free get less importance than others.

      Also, the UN is not a democracy in that the people of the world do not vote on its resolution. The people of the world are in fact unaware of the resolutions passed behind closed doors.

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