Wired – by DUNCAN GEEREAll of the major internet organisations have pledged, at a summit in Uruguay, to free themselves of the influence of the US government.
The directors of ICANN, the Internet Engineering Task Force, the Internet Architecture Board, the World Wide Web Consortium, the Internet Society and all five of the regional Internet address registries have vowed to break their associations with the US government.
In a statement, the group called for “accelerating the globalization of ICANN and IANA functions, towards an environment in which all stakeholders, including all governments, participate on an equal footing”.
That’s a distinct change from the current situation, where the US department of commerce has oversight of ICANN.
In another part of the statement, the group “expressed strong concern over the undermining of the trust and confidence of Internet users globally due to recent revelations of pervasive monitoring and surveillance”.
Meanwhile, it was announced that the next Internet Governance Summit would be held in Brazil, whose president has been extremely critical of the US over web surveillance.
In a statement announcing the location of the summit, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff said: “The United States and its allies must urgently end their spying activities once and for all.”
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-10/12/us-internet-control
What does this mean in real terms as I cannot see the US government going “Hey, sure, that’s OK, here have the reins of the internet as we say goodbye to a tool that we can use to steal, rob and pauperise people by remote control and use it to gain the heads up on trades, shares, insider dealings that brings us billions through insider trading”
But for the internet to truly evolve and stop being the US government’s plaything, it must be wrested from the US government’s control that much is sure.
Good luck. The Pentagon has subs that are used for placing taps on underwater fiber optic cables, subs that were designed and built for just that reason.
The Beast will not go without a fight, which is coming soon.