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What does Bill think?
The first news item concerned ex-President of the USA, Bill Clinton, who said that the United States should retain control of the internet because it had and will continue to keep the net "free and open".
The news that gave rise to his concern about the potential loss of freedom and openness available through the internet was that the US is to hand over control of the internet to an “international multi-stakeholder group” which is coordinated by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).
This is what ICANN said about the change:
"We are inviting governments, the private sector, civil society, and other Internet organizations from the whole world to join us in developing this transition process," said Fadi Chehadé, ICANN's President and CEO. "All stakeholders deserve a voice in the management and governance of this global resource as equal partners."
Bill Clinton is not convinced that this new ‘group’ would be exactly what it set out to be:
"I just know that a lot of these so-called multi-stakeholders are really governments that want to gag people and restrict access to the internet."
It will be interesting to see the impact of the US government’s intention to relinquish control of the system which assigns domain names and numbers to the world.
What does Jimmy think?
Ex-US President, Jimmy Carter, has an interesting view which is in stark contrast to that of Bill Clinton.
Jimmy Carter runs the Carter Center, an organisation which campaigns for “human rights and the alleviation of human suffering” around the world.
"I feel that my telephone calls and my email are being monitored, and there are some things I just don't want anybody to know."
This statesman is so concerned that his email and phones calls are being monitored by his own country that he has taken to communicating with people through handwritten letters to keep prying eyes and ears out of his business.
Who should control the internet?
Edward Snowden has pointed out that the activities happening in the USA within their security services so it is not as though the Americans are a beacon of trustworthiness.
On the face of it, the move from the US to the ‘group’ managed by ICANN appears to be one which could make the control of the internet a more democratic affair. But, committees or groups are prone to disagreements and discussions which slow down the process of change and improvement which, in the high tech world of the web, could result in no action at all, at worst.
Whatever happens, we should be able to scrutinise decisions being made by this new group so that the internet does stay free and open to all.
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