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From: wolda002@umn.edu
Date: Tue Dec 28 2010 - 23:48:26 EST
Using WikiLeaks to police the Internet
Post Categories: World > Society
By Anna Varfolomeeva | 17:32 BeiJing Time,Thursday, December 23, 2010
Western governments and several others around the globe are hatching a plot
that had apparently been in the making prior to WikiLeaks' release of
classiffied documents, hanging on WikiLeaks' actions to justify why the
internet must be regulated by some global standards - hence limiting the
largely free nature of the medium.
At a meeting in New York on Wednesday, representatives from Brazil called
for an international body made up of Government representatives that would
attempt to create global standards for policing the internet - specifically
in reaction to challenges such as WikiLeaks, according to the Australian IT
News. <http://en.m4.cn/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/images1.jpeg>
The Register reported that this initiative follows the decision at the UN
Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) 2010-2011
Inter-sessional Panel, reported in RawStory last week for a recently-formed
United Nations task force to look at the possibility of creating a new
inter-governmental working group to help further international cooperation
on policies to police the internet.
However, critics have been swift to condemn this move. Writing on Google’s
official blog, Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf stated: "The beauty of
the Internet is that it’s not controlled by any one group. Its governance is
bottoms-up [sic] — with academics, non-profits, companies and governments
all working to improve this technological wonder of the modern world.
"This model has not only made the Internet very open - a testbed for
innovation by anyone, anywhere - it's also prevented vested interests from
taking control. The current bottoms-up, open approach works — protecting
users from vested interests and enabling rapid innovation. Let’s fight to
keep it that way," he noted.
Currently, the Internet system is operated by a privately held company based
in California, which is responsible for coordinating servers and domain
names - ICANN - Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. The new
initiative is supposed to end the U.S. control over what’s become a global
network.
With the Internet now dominating nearly every aspect of modern life, U.S.
control of the medium has become a sensitive topic worldwide. In nations
that try to control what people can see and hear, the Internet often is the
only source of uncensored news and opinion, the Seattle Times reported. At
the same time, U.S. officials say that keeping Internet functions under
their control has protected that free flow of information.
According to IT News, India, South Africa, China and Saudi Arabia appeared
to favour a new possible over-arching inter-government body. However,
Australia, US, UK, Belgium and Canada and some business and community
representatives argue that there are risks in forming yet another working
group that might isolate itself from the industry, community users and the
general public.
In relation to this issue, Chris Anderson and Michael Wolff wrote in their
article, *The Web is dead. Long live the Internet: *“This was all
inevitable.* *It is the cycle of capitalism. The story of industrial
revolutions, after all, is a story of battles over control. A technology is
invented, it spreads, a thousand flowers bloom, and then someone finds a way
to own it, locking out others. It happens every time… Indeed, there has
hardly ever been a fortune created without a monopoly of some sort, or at
least an oligopoly. This is the natural path of industrialization:
invention, propagation, adoption, control. Now it’s the Web’s turn to face
the pressure for profits and the walled gardens that bring them.”
The WikiLeaks' case apparently became the spark needed to start the new
power struggle. And this is one more reason to question the real reasons
behind WikiLeaks founders’ selflessness.
The Iranian leader who has led Tehran's resistance to UN sanctions against
its nuclear programme has recently also suggested that WikiLeaks was an
American tool to plant misinformation around the world., according to the
Telegraph.
"Let me first correct you. The material was not leaked, but rather released
in an organised way," said Mr Ahmadinejad. "We don't give any value to these
documents," President Ahmadinejad said. "It's without legal value. Iran and
regional states are friends. Such acts of mischief have no impact on
relations between nations."
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