The Web: is it really splitting?
Until now the Internet has been a uniquely bottom-up, nonhierarchical, seamless form of global communication. But all that is changing, as governments, multinational companies and individuals battle for control over the digital landscape. Nations are arguing over how the Web should be governed and regulated, dragging old foreign-policy grudges into cyberspace. Countries like China, Iran, North Korea and Vietnam (why I am not surprised?) are coming up with new ways to censor citizens’ online communications, often with the help of Western multinationals. At least one, Iran, has threatened to set up its own alternative-reality Internet-as protest groups already have-the kind of thing that could wreak havoc with global Web traffic, and create confusion among users who no longer knew if the sites they peruse were legitimate.
Even as they deregulate other industries, European bureaucrats are using taxpayer money to create national Internet champions. Telecoms in the United States and Europe are battling high-tech behemoths such as Google and Microsoft over who should reap the financial benefits of the digital superhighway. Poor countries are begging rich ones for better online infrastructure, while activists urge governments and companies alike to keep Web access free and unrestricted. The bottom line? Instead of a borderless, well-functioning, economically efficient communications network, the Internet is poised to become a quagmire of special interests, competing political agendas and international bureaucracy. “Sadly, it looks like the period in which the Internet functions seamlessly is over,” says Vint Cerf, one of the Internet’s better-known creators, now “chief Internet evangelist” for Google.
This are indeed bad news. if the regulate Internet, free speech is going to be diminished really…
Tags: blogosphere, freedom of expression, Web
