Put the US Government in charge of the Internet – there’s a bright idea!
I meant to write about this over the weekend but I was too busy and then I lost the article, but fortunately someone on LiveJournal posted about it.
Three lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives called on Friday for the Internet’s core infrastructure to remain under U.S. control, echoing similar language introduced in the Senate earlier this week.
The resolution, introduced by two Republicans and one Democrat, aims to line up Congress firmly behind the Bush administration as it heads for a showdown with much of the rest of the world over control of the global computer network.
“Turning the Internet over to countries with problematic human-rights records, muted free-speech laws, and questionable taxation practices will prevent the Internet from remaining the thriving medium it has become today,” said California Republican Rep. John Doolittle in a statement.
Clearly they’re oblivious to the irony of US politicians talking about “countries with problematic human-rights records” and “muted free-speech laws”. I’m sure the American secret service doesn’t keep tabs on anyone who reads websites in “hostile” nations or who write anything anti-Bush. (I’m sure other “civilised” countries do much the same thing, but they’re not the ones trying to grab control of the Internet.)
Given their desire for free speech, how does that reconcile with their claim that
a U.N. group would stifle innovation with excessive bureaucracy and enable repressive regimes to curtail free expression online.
Is it free speech for some? Who will determine which countries are allowed access to the Internet?
When these politicians talk about “under U.S. control”, I’m sure they don’t mean independent organisations; maybe it should be returned to the military, given as how [D]ARPA gave birth to the Internet? I’m sure the armed forces won’t have any problem with the left-wing views of many websites.
“The United States is uniquely positioned in the world to protect the fundamental principles of free press and free speech, upon which the Internet has thrived,” Goodlatte said in a statement.
…And if anyone thinks differently, we’ll haul them off to Gitmo!
Comments
One Comment on Put the US Government in charge of the Internet – there’s a bright idea!
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paul on
Wed, 26th Oct 2005 12:54 pm
US Government; free speech; yeah.
If you have a loved one stationed overseas in the Navy or with the Marines, you can forget about exchanging email with them if they use any of the commercial services such as Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL or Gmail. According to a report in Stars & Stripes, the Navy and Marine Corps have blocked all access to such services from overseas government computers, including those at libraries.
[source: Aunty-Spam.com]
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