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The US versus the rest
149/Gary Herman
DATELINE: 11/1/06
The recent and grandiosely titled World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), organised by the United Nations, strained mightily and brought forth the proverbial mouse. After three years of planning and pre-meetings, and two full-scale conferences, the 50 or so world leaders at the second conference in Tunis agreed to have a few more meetings. A new organisation called the ‘Internet Governance Forum’ will be formed in order to continue to discuss what the UN calls "further internationalisation of Internet governance" in a variety of more-or-less exotic locations around the world, starting in the middle of next year.
What does it all mean?
Enthusiasts have long proclaimed cyberspace a "functioning anarchy" perpetuating the myth that no-one controls the internet. The truth is different. Since its very beginnings in the 1960s, the internet has been a creature of government and the big technology businesses whose relationship with government is symbiotically close if not actually cosy. Specifically, the organisations controlling the internet have been the US Department of Defense and the Department of Commerce along with an informal cartel of research institutes like the National Centre for Supercomputer Applications and companies like IBM and AT&T.
The control is exercised largely through the development, maintenance and administration of technical standards - the key intellectual property of the communications age. The US Government does not tend to interfere directly but it has used its own purchasing power and its ability to set or adopt standards, fund research projects and manage the economic environment to direct the development of the internet.
The result has been to fuel around a third of all US economic growth in recent years through the success of companies like Cisco, Sun, SBC (formerly South Western Bell) and more recently Google and eBay. Since 1998, the body responsible for controlling internet standards (notably the domain names which allow you to find a web site or send an email ) has been the esoterically named Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
The development of practical global networking standards, spearheaded by the internet, left most of the rest of the globe out in the cold. Working through the International Standards Organisation (ISO) and the world’s oldest international agency, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the UN and the European Commission became mired in legislative process whenever they tried to respond to frighteningly rapid changes in the technology market. Since the US Government agreed to commercialise the internet in 1991 - allowing companies to buy and sell domain names - the UN and the EC have attempted to exert some control on the process. The WSIS represents the most recent of these attempts.
Despite protestations to the contrary, the whole WSIS process is not primarily about the digital divide, freedom of expression or content regulation. These are vital issues, touted by UN agencies and NGOs in the run-up to the final WSIS conference in Tunis, but they cannot be addressed without talking about control. In the event, they were sidelined.
The ostensible reason was George W. Bush’s reversal of Bill Clinton’s position on ICANN. In 1998, Clinton promised that ICANN would become independent by 2006 and therefore susceptible to international management. Two days before July 4 this year, the Department of Commerce announced that it would keep control of the domain name system indefinitely.
For the world leaders congregating in North Africa, this was a slap in the face - and one that overshadowed practically any other topic of debate. Ultimate control of the internet would remain in the hands of the US Government - a situation which, in any other international medium, would be deemed intolerable. But the US has all the aces. All anyone can do is keep talking.
Last modified: Wednesday, January 11, 2006
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Notices
Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
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Make a note in your diary
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DOWNLOAD FREEPRESS NOW
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MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
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