29 Nov Freedom for the Internet?
UN delegates are meeting next week in Dubai to determine how the Internet will be controlled and charged for. Did you have any idea?
“The Internet stands at a crossroads,” said Vint Cerf, one of the ’Net’s founders, in a New York Times story in May. Events in Dubai, he wrote, could “take away the Internet as you and I have known it.”
The vote in Dubai mainly centers around how to change the way the World charges for Internet Traffic, the ability of governments to terminate domains or websites, and the ability of governments to censor traffic for their citizens.
Some quick background – Internet Corporation for Assigned Numbers and Names (ICANN) has been in control of the domain name system since 1998. The have been fairly neutral to positive in keeping information flow open to all.
The ‘Sender Party Pays’ faction is pushing hard to put fees in place for websites/companies to pay local networks to transmit their web content to any external visitors. This will create huge fees for large content providers like Google and Facebook which will quickly be pushed to you and me.
A second initiative will allow governments to force ICANN to delete IPs, or domains that they state cause harm to their countries. Get ready for the destruction of any dissenting views.
The big third one is forced aid by ICANN and other agencies to help governments control what information is allowed into each country.
The major parties behind all three?
Russia and China
I don’t know if it’s a good idea to let the absolute definition of censorship and citizen control be in charge of the debate. And with the US delegate in mouse mode – ‘We don’t want to come across like we’re preaching to others’ – we may see a dramatic swing in policy that will lead to a very dangerous path.
Keep an eye on this issue, and let your representatives in Washington know how you feel. We don’t want to wake up in a true Orwellian world and wonder when and how it all happened.