US Internet Empire Finished

by Sibyl West

My mind is very attuned to symbolism and synchronicity. I couldn’t quite shake off an eerie feeling last night, for at the same time the Empire State Building was lighting up red to mark the 60th anniversary of the Communist takeover of China, the United States of America lost control and supervision of the internet. There was not even a whimper from any of our media but only a blink from across the pond at Guardian.co.uk:

 

After complaints about American dominance of the internet and growing disquiet in some parts of the world, Washington has said it will relinquish some control over the way the network is run and allow foreign governments more of a say in the future of the system.

Icann – the official body that ultimately controls the development of the internet thanks to its oversight of web addresses such as .com, .net and .org – said today that it was ending its agreement with the US government.

The deal, part of a contract negotiated with the US department of commerce, effectively pushes California-based Icann towards a new status as an international body with greater representation from companies and governments around the globe.

And whom do you suppose is doing a lot of the complaining? The picture for the article shows a young Chinese man surfing the net in Beijing.

But the fresh focus will give other countries a more prominent role in determining what takes place online, and even the way in which it happens – opening the door for a virtual United Nations, where many officials gather to discuss potential changes to the internet.

Translation: A government can put firewalls on certain sources of information that are too revealing or critical of its policies and activities. If a government doesn’t like the websites you are visiting your name goes on a watch list. If it doesn’t like what you are writing they can get your IP address and come and get you, put you in jail without charge, and maybe even put your name on the list for donating organs. THIS is what is going on right now in China and has been for some time through filtering web content and tools like search engines, monitoring chat rooms, blogs and email. But the article uses the Orwellian expression “putting public interest first” to describe the new changes.

As far back as  July 2005 in an article in Slate Tim Wu reported:

Kristof is right that China’s blogging rules can be sidestepped by experts. But what he and others overlook is a larger assault on the identity of the Internet itself. The Web was conceived as one global medium, by its nature open and free. But countries like China are pushing hard to divide that global network into a system of Balkanized national networks. Censorship of the sort Microsoft acceded to is grabbing headlines, but the more important restrictive measures are taking place quietly—and quietly succeeding.

On September 30, 2009 they silently won the internet war. Evening’s empire has vanished from America’s hand. Just thought you’d want to know.

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