U.N. Control Of The Internet?
By Michael R. Bowen (11/18/03)
There they go again.
A group of United Nations members is pushing for U.N. control of the Internet. While citing pressing issues of protection of intellectual property and prevention of Internet crime, proponents of the move also manage to shove in some classic U.N. pie-in-the-sky baloney. Nitin Desai, special adviser to Kofi Annan, talks about utilizing new technologies to overcome poverty and find ways to make Internet access affordable to all. A global fund has been proposed to help poor countries establish Internet access.
That all sounds very nice, but the real motive is given away in a Washington Times article by John Zaracostas: "the Internet medium is too important to be left in the hands of one major power, some argue."
Anyone want to guess who is the "one major power"? The U.N. Charter may claim its mission is the advancement of world peace and understanding, but the truth is they're only about one thing anymore: opposing any and all actions of the United States. America is the birthplace of the Internet, and the Internet spreads the American message of freedom like no other medium. It's wide-open free speech, 24/7, worldwide. No wonder the U.N. can't stand it.
The socialist states of Europe can't have citizens making their own economic decisions like buying and selling. Communist nations can't have freewheeling political discussion, which might result in criticism of the regime. Theocracies aren't about to tolerate an unregulated medium where sexuality and culture are debated. And bloody tyrants everywhere, who survive by keeping the people from getting together out of sight of government minders, would be quickly undermined by a free Internet.
For everyone who despises freedom, everyone who knows better than the rest of us, who knows that freedom for his people would mean jail or execution for him, whose existence depends on the continued blindness, deafness, and muteness of his people, the Internet is poison. For everyone who already knows how to build the perfect human society, if only he had a way to manipulate communications and siphon off wealth to fund his programs, the Internet is a superb tool. For nations which can't seem to pull themselves up out of Third World poverty, the Internet would be a great way to suck wealth from someone else's creativity. No wonder the sponsors of this U.N. plan include names like China and Saudi Arabia, Senegal and other African nations, Russia and India.
The Internet is an instrument of freedom and an engine for the generation of wealth. What could be more foolish than to place it under the control of the collection of tyrants, murderers, spendthrifts, and thieves that styles itself the United Nations?
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