EU Free Rides Again, and Now Wants Control

The Internet is the quintessential American invention - first built by academics and the Defense Department, and later made incredibly user friendly by grad students and young entrepreneurs. The rest of the world just sat back and watched as the hypertextual universe suddenly had a decent (and constantly improving) visual interface.

It was such a powerful invention that it swept the world, with many nations trying to keep it out, or monitor its usage. Most of the world didn't contribute significantly to its development, but the whole world has been a free rider on this greatest of all American inventions.

Information inherently wants to be free, and Americans value freedom more than any other people on the planet. It is this ethos that lead legions of American enterpreneurs, libertarians, communitarians and even socialists to do their part to make the internet the useful tool it is today.

But because of the usefulness of the internet, other nations are trying to jump on the bandwagon and attempt to steer where it might go. This should be a non-starter for the United States. Letting the UN control the internet invariably means that nations such as China or Germany which do not value the free flow of information, will have a voice in setting the parameters of the internet, and its usefulness will decrease. It is the very ethos of American freedom that made the internet what it is. Compromising this ethos will only result in a less useful hyperreality that is more full of propaganda than of actually useful information.

I specifically mention Germany above because while it shares many American values, the Germans do not brook any publication etc. that touches on Nazism or Neo-Nazism. Americans, while appalled by such an ideology, believe in freedom of the press with no exceptions. Because the rest of the world does not embrace our liberal attitudes towards freedom of the press, they should not have access to control the content of the global press, despite the best efforts of of China and others to do so.

The UN deserves no role in controlling the internet.