Is the U.S. a Good Internet Steward?

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Technology experts from around the world are converging on Rio De Janeiro, Brazil this week to discuss transitioning control of the Internet over to a international body, rather than leaving control in the hands of the U.S.

This is an appropriate move considering that 1.4 billion people worldwide use the Internet. U.S. officials are using the argument that this would make the Internet vulnerable to censorship. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank wrote “Should the UN gain control of the Internet, it would give meddlesome governments the opportunity to censor and regulate the medium until its usefulness as a vehicle for freedom of expression and international competition is crippled.” on it's Web Site.

This train of thought would carry a lot more weight for me except for two other current news stories.

1. Net Neutrality, an important piece of legislation, witch protects the free flow of information on the Internet was dead, dead, dead. And then recently a few issues came up demonstrating how the Internet could be abused. I won't go into details here.
2. The second news Item is Yahoo's treatment at the hands of Congress for releasing information about a Chinese Dissident to the Chinese Government. This would be a perfectly understandable even laudable position from Congress, if these same conservative Congressmen were not pushing legislation through requiring ISP on other Internet companies to turn over the same information to the U.S. Government without the benefit or warrants or oversight.

Clearly the U.S. is not in a position to steer this ship in a way that is equitable for everyone.

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