European Union Insists on Sharing Internet Governance

Decades before Americans had ever heard the word "browser," the United States created the Internet as a Pentagon project and funded most of its development. Over the years since then, the U.S. Commerce Department has delegated much of the responsibility for policing the Internet to an American-based private organization. Although the governing board of that organization includes several international board members, the final veto power over decisions remains with the Commerce Department. Now that the Internet has evolved into a massive global communications entity, some countries are beginning to feel frustration because of being shut out of the inner circle of Internet governance. A showdown seems imminent over who will become the Sherriff of the Wild, Wild, Web.

EU spokesman Martin Selmayr said that a new cooperation model among nations is important because the Internet is now a global resource. "The EU ... is very firm on this position," he added. But Ambassador David Gross, the U.S. coordinator for international communications and information policy at the State Department, makes no bones about the firm position of the United States. "We will not agree to the UN taking over the management of the internet," said Gross. "Some countries want that. We think that's unacceptable."

The primary bone of contention is who would have ultimate authority over the Internet’s master directories, the guides that tell Web browsers and e-mail programs how to direct traffic. Some countries have gradually become frustrated because the United States and the European countries that were the first to pull out onto the information superhighway gobbled up most of the available addresses required for computers to connect, leaving developing nations with a fraction of that number to share among themselves. Even though the Internet was born in the United States, now the global society seems to think they have gotten the short end of the stick and everyone is screaming for their "fair share" and the right to govern it as well.

Policy decisions and especially changes are critical to the future of the Internet. The U.S. argues that UN proposals would shift the regulatory approach from private sector leadership to government control. Last month the UN’s Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) published a set of proposals for reform of the way the Net is run, which are to be debated at the World Summit in November. Many developing countries have been gradually seeking to exploit the capabilities of the Internet for social and economic development, so the issue is becoming ever more pressing around the globe. Many countries have been calling for the United States to relinquish control, or at least to come up with a compromise, to ensure that the Internet is managed more equitably. Other countries argue that no one country should have authority over something that plays such a key role in the global marketplace. But the truth of the matter remains: the Internet was created and developed in the United States, and everybody else discovered it and took advantage of it. If other countries think they should be entitled to call the shots now that it’s popular, they’re welcome to stop using it. They can just quit their whining and design their own Internet.