e-Meddling

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal Asia published what was probably an editorial from the regular WSJ entitled "e-Meddling" which, perhaps, opened my eyes to the future of the Internet:

International bureaucrats and assorted countries are struggling to wrest control of "Internet governance" from that old unilateralist bogeyman, the United States. There's only one problem with this picture: Cyberspace isn't "governed" by the U.S. or anyone else, and that's the beauty of it. But if the United Nations gets its way int eh coming month, the Web will end up under its control.

While it may be nothing more than another charge against the UN by the right, Googling "united nations" and "internet" did bring up a dozen or so stories, not exclusively from the right.

The WSJ-A editorial goes on to explain that, to the extent the Internet is governed, it's done by a nonprofit organization called Icann which administers the "root zone file," assuring that any domain name is assigned to only one Web site. That's the extent of "governance" over the Internet.

Real "governance," one the other hand, writes the WSJ, could bring oversight of content .... For an example of how the Internet is governed, look no further than the strict limits China -- one of the main proponents of "internationalizing" the root zone -- places on Web sites that promote or even discuss democracy.

While the UN's Working Group on Internet Governance says it would respect freedom of expression, the WSJ is skeptical -- and so am I.

But that won't surprise anyone who knows me. The libertarian in me says to naturally distrust government when it proposes regulating speech.

On the other hand, if UN oversight of the Internet would reduce all that spam in my inbox.....