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Cold War 2.0

October 14, 2005

Even as excitement over Web 2.0 draws a new bunch of entrepreneurial prospectors, it's becoming clear that the Internet's Wild West days are ending. Governments are moving in, looking to exert more control over what has become a critical infrastructure for commerce and communication - and thus a central concern for bureaucrats. A consortium of U.S. states is making a new push to tax Internet sales. The European Commission, worried about ceding control over the continent's cultural heritage to U.S. search giants like Google and Yahoo, has announced plans to create its own massive digital library. The FCC is demanding that VoIP providers give the FBI and other law enforcement agencies a means to wiretap conversations running over their networks (eBay should have fun explaining that to Skype's European subscribers). Google is hiring Washington lobbyists to, as it nervously puts it, "defend the Internet as a free and open platform for information, communication, and innovation."

More broadly, the world's support for continued U.S. control over Internet rule-making appears to be falling apart. Authoritarian states like China, Saudi Arabia and Iran have always been uncomfortable with the Internet's openness, and they've grown more aggressive in demanding that states be given greater control over Internet governance. They are looking, in particular, to take over some of the power traditionally wielded by Icann, the California-based nonprofit organization operated under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Commerce, over the management of top-level domain names and other technical standards. Governments unfriendly toward the U.S. are also calling for changes in Internet governance, with Brazil even threatening that it will carve out its own regional Internet if the current system isn't changed.

Their cause received a major boost last month when the European Union came out in favor of greater international oversight over the Internet, calling for "the establishment of an arbitration and dispute resolution mechanism based on international law in case of disputes." The U.S. is steadfast in its opposition to the European proposal. A bipartisan group of congressmen, for instance, issued a letter arguing that "the Bush Administration, and specifically the Department of Commerce, should continue to maintain strong oversight so that Icann maintains its focus and meets it core technical mission." The IT industry, too, is defending the status quo. The issue should come to a head next month when the World Summit of the Information Society is held in Tunisia.

Whatever happens in Tunisia, governments' interest in controlling the Internet will only increase. Thanks to the Net, the world's computing and communications assets are becoming ever more portable; data storage and processing can increasingly be done anywhere, regardless of national boundaries. It's becoming possible, in other words, for essential components of a country's economic infrastructure to be operated on foreign shores, under the control of foreign governments. The implications of this fact, not just for commerce but for national security, are far-reaching - and governments have yet to grapple with them. But, inevitably, they'll be forced to grapple with them. Nations don't tend to like giving control over their economic destinies to other nations.

It would be nice to think that, when it comes to digital communications and commerce, countries will simply trust one another - nice, but not particularly realistic. The next Cold War will likely be fought on the Internet.

Posted by nick at October 14, 2005 11:12 AM

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Comments

Yes I agree 100%. This is bang on. The EU is asserting itself in many ways, however any tangible outcomes of its attempts to level the playing field vis a vis USA remain elusive.

Posted by: Nitin Goyal at October 15, 2005 12:54 PM

Bulls eye. Yes, ultimately Web will be the same government controlled, taxed, licensed, red-taped infrastructure. Well managed and sensibly managed in developed nations, and messed around with, in underdeveloped nation.

Posted by: Shouvik at October 17, 2005 02:59 AM

Very interesting and most likely governments will take more control over internet. But in individual level, networking wirelessly and therefore 'out of sight' (unless somekind of tracking system is created) web will still be more free than physical world. With blogs such as this and computer language skills there will always be the opposite voice to balance the red-taped control.

Posted by: Teppo at October 19, 2005 06:59 AM

I liked it better when goverments barely knew what the internet was.

Posted by: Kaniaz at October 19, 2005 04:55 PM

when will the leaders of the world realize that sovereignty is becoming a very fuzzy concept, and that increased unification and cooperation are the only path that makes sense any more? talk of some countries carving out nation nets is so ridiculous. it's the kind of backward step that is a sure sign that world leaders are at a loss as to what to do next. international bodies with real authority, founded on principles of real cooperation, are absolutley essential at this stage of the game. this is not only true in terms of the net, but in so many aspects of human existence. the world continues to get smaller, when do we start acting like members of one community, and stop acting like we belong to different, rival clubs?

Posted by: rvr at October 27, 2005 09:27 PM

The Internet is a US government invention (DARPA etc). Most of us forget this. The US government did for much of the Internet's existence.

But now, given the current US tendency to be a little on the aggressive side in politics generally, this "ownership" worries other governments....(and me)

Posted by: Thomas Otter at June 14, 2006 11:58 AM

Cold War 2.0

October 14, 2005

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