Information Research Weblog

I don't know about you, but whenever I see the issue of 'Internet governance' raised, I assume that big business is once again seeking to control what we can access, how we can access and when we can access. The warning shot comes in a longish article at allAfrica.com. Not one of my regular ports of call but it brings us news that the UN is setting up a Working Group on Internet Governance, about which more can be found at the UN site.

Business and governments don't like the inherent freedom of the Internet: and they worry about anything they cannot control. It's curious how those who inveigh against the lack of freedom of information in, say, China, are quite prepared to erode freedom of information on the Internet. Of course, there are some Western governments, like Blair's New Thatcherites, who don't give much prominence to their freedom of information policies anyway—mainly because they are trying, desperately, to curb the freedoms the legislation has delivered by imposing whacking great charges for access.

The UN Working Party however, has a bigger cabal of interested parties, including the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO). WIPO, of course, is run for the benefit of the big corporations and, through its support for patent rights, those big corporations prevent the development of, for example, generic anti-HIV drugs, in the third world. The WTO is similarly oriented towards global corporations and the protection, predominantly, of US interests—although there are signs that the developing countries are beginning to get their act together in countering the hegemony of the developed world.

The problems that the UN Press Release mentions, '...management of Internet resources, spam, cyber-security, cyber-crime, multilingualism and data protection' are a curious mixture. 'Internet resources' are managed by those who maintain their Websites, so what does this mean? Not management of what is there, but control over who can put what on a Website, I imagine. 'Spam' - yes, a problem, but not one that is likely to find a solution in a Working Party and solutions of various kinds are being delivered already, through legislation, and technology developments that prevent the spam getting through. 'Cyber-security' - a matter for organizations with Internet connection to see to. 'Cyber-crime' - the same - and often a reality because security is lax. You can drive around the City of London with a wi-fi detector and a laptop and readily access a number of corporate sites: the only solution to that is a local one, not an international one. 'Multilingualism' - that's an odd one. Do they mean a lack of multiligual sites, or too many? In the early years of the Net, the fear was that English would dominate, now the feeling is that Chinese sites may dominate. What's the problem? 'Data protection' - see above under cyber-security.

Do you get the feeling that this Working Party is a cloak for something else? A desire on the part of those organizations that lobby the UN for control, perhaps?