In the past we have noted that there was a growing chorus coming from several corners of the globe for the US to relinquish administrative control of the Internet. Over the past few months that chorus has grown louder, with several leading developed and developing nations calling for UN control of the Internet. At the upcoming UN World Summit on Information in Tunisia, the US is expected to face an enormous amount of pressure to hand over that control to some international body.
In 1969, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) created a loosely integrated network of computers that could share information and data over various distances. This network, then known as DARPA Net later came to be known as the Internet. Since that year the Internet has undergone rapid and worldwide dissemination. First embraced by US research universities from MIT to Cal Tech to Carnegie Mellon to Georgia Tech during the 1970s and 80s. By the early 1990s big business began to recognize the Internet’s enormous potential, which ultimately led to the emergence of the Internet as a tool for consumers. Today the Internet has become a global resource, embraced in distant lands and industrial Meccas around the world. Since inception, much of the Internet’s backbone has rested securely in the hands of the United States. Today the US Dept. of Commerce retains control of these super computers that direct traffic to websites and email addresses across the vastness of cyberspace. The UN’s Working Group for Internet Governance (WGIG) has called for an end to US domination of the Internet and control by a UN body, composed of various world governments.
The UN group has argued that by placing the Internet’s backbone in the hand of an international body, it will improve development. In reality the US does not exert a great deal of control over the Internet. In the late 1990s, the US created ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), this organization ensures that the various world networks around the globe communicate with one another as intended; this operation is overseen by the Dept. of Commerce. The UN, and indeed the world must be reminded, that it is the US that has invested the time, money and research in Internet development. It is the US that created the Internet for its own purposes. If the UN and other foreign bodies are dissatisfied with the direction of US policy, they would be well advised to put up their own money and time to develop their own system. And indeed, some have threatened just such action if the US doesn’t submit to their demands. Indeed, these rivals would quickly discover that in their rashness, they will have succeeded only in making life more difficult for themselves. In light of such reality, perhaps America should call their bluff.
US officials have noted, there is no discernable advantage to the creation of a UN oversight body for the Internet. This is typical of the busy bodies in the UN who see nothing wrong with taking that, which is a product of someone else’s labor. Many countries complain that since the “master root server” is housed in the US, the US government could essentially wipe out a nation on the Internet or deprive such nation of access to the Internet. The assertion, however, is laughable. Anti—American propagandist, want nothing more than to strike at anything symbolically under US control, no matter how benign that may be. Fortunately, the Bush Administration’s credit, they have made it clear that the US will not entertain any suggestions that alter the existing structure of the net and rightly so. Key members of Congress in both political parties support this position. The Internet is a US creation, that has been managed well by the US, other nations through a combination of jealously and a never-ending desire to undermine the US see the Internet as a nothing more than a means to accomplish that goal. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4436428.stm
