International Regulation Of The Internet?

Guest blog from guestblogger <Rule #15 Suspension>Tim Robles</Rule #15 Suspension>:

A couple of days ago, I heard a news report on the radio (Fox News) about the recent elections in the Ukraine. A youth who demonstrated there said that The United States Policy of "Spreading Democracy" and in general, freedom, was an inspiration to their cause. The youth also noted that the internet played a large part in their ability to spread the word of their cause. He warned "…just wait and see what happens in Russia next").

This new found strength and use of the internet can be also found in Lebanon where the people there have had enough. The use of the internet to spread the word I’ll bet can also be found there as a major tool. In China the faith is spread there….you guessed it through the internet. I personally know of an elderly gentleman of Korean decent who sneaks into North Korea to pastor a church there. He communicates via…..once again … the internet.

It’s typical for many people to pour themselves that morning cup of coffee, and instead of opening up that newspaper (…the only time I open a newspaper now-a-days is to line the bird cage. My bird has a preference for the Los Angles Times Editorial page) we check one of our favorite Blogs or news wires on the internet. News is instantaneous today. If we want to converse with a friend or an acquaintance, whether local or on the other side of the world, we can text message or login to one of our favorite Forums (CA Forums are the best!) We can talk about anything under the sun, from religion to politics. My sending this thought to share with you and others (…possibly) is a good example of one of the freedoms we enjoy, without much thought on a day to day bases.

Enter the Dragon: China now thinks that where should be some controls on that freedom and it wants it controlled by the United Nations. One can imagine the "Internet Control Committee (…ICC for short) comprising of Syria, Iran, Congo, Russia and headed by China.

Your thoughts?

My thoughts?

It’s our Internet. We developed it. We bought it. We paid for it. We’re keeping it.

If others don’t like it, they can go develop their own Internets.

The China angle just shows that the much-vaunted Great Information Wall of China (whatever they call it) is cracking.

GET THE STORY.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

4 thoughts on “International Regulation Of The Internet?”

  1. With the way routing works and as broadcast medium’s (dish, blue-tooth) become more popular this will become essentially impossible. Not to mention the largest suppliers of both equipment and bandwidth are still American if I remember correctly.

  2. I’m not sure, but usually whenever politicians start talking about “controlling the Internet,” they’re talking about limiting access to WWW sites (and possibly FTP as well). Most of the time, these politicians aren’t even aware of the other protocols that are available, and will continue to pop up as technology develops. I would almost be willing to bet good money that as soon as this “ICC” was created other forms of communication over the Internet would develop in reaction.

  3. As I recall, the Internet treats censorship as “damage” and routs around it! On the democracy point, the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences has been doing some very interesting work of late. Much under-publicized methinks. See it at http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_academies/acdscien/own/documents/rc_acdsci_doc_20001003_publications_social_en.html
    See also the Pontifical Council on Social Communications document “Ethics in Internet”.

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