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| The spider in the web By Ignacio Ramonet THE second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society runs in Tunis later this month. Its first phase, convened by the United Nations and organised by the International Telecommunication Union, was held in Geneva in December 2003 and focused on the digital divide (1). The Tunis summit’s main theme is how to find a more democratic regulation system for the internet. The internet was invented in the United States during the cold war. The Pentagon wanted to set up a communication system that would survive a nuclear attack and allow political and military leaders (those who were still alive) to regroup and fight back. Vinton Cerf, still studying in Los Angeles at the time, dreamed up and worked out, with the help of a research team and public money, the tools and protocols of a revolutionary new means of communication. But access to this embryonic net was limited to a tiny circle of initiates in academia, politics and the military. In 1989 the physicists Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau, of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research in Geneva, developed the hypertext system for linking documents and invented the world wide web. This technology facilitated information distribution and public access to the net, soon to expand massively and exponentially. Since 1998 the global network has been run by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), a private-sector, non-profit organisation based in Los Angeles. It is subject to California law and supervised by the US Department of Commerce. Icann is the net’s mighty switchboard. It is equipped with 13 colossal computers known as root servers, 10 located in the US (four in California and six near Washington DC) while the others are sited in London, Stockholm and Tokyo. Icann’s main role is to coordinate the domain name system (DNS), which facilitates web navigation. Every computer that is connected to the internet has a unique internet protocol (IP) address. In their simple form, these addresses are a string of numbers. Since numbers are not easy to remember, the DNS allows them to be translated into domain names of words and letters. Instead of typing the raw IP address of this publication into your web browser, you type www.mondediplo.com. The DNS then converts the domain name back into the IP address and your computer connects to the site. Email works by the same system. All this happens at lightning speed and on a planetary scale. In its own words, Icann “is dedicated to preserving the operational stability of the internet; to promoting competition; to achieving broad representation of global internet communities; and to developing policy appropriate to its mission through bottom-up, consensus-based processes” (2). But lately there has been less and less consensus. Challenges to US control of the worldwide network are getting louder and stronger. Last September there was a preparatory summit in Geneva, ahead of the Tunis meeting, between the US and the European Union. Icann’s contract with the US Department of Commerce expires in September 2006, and the EU’s 25 states unanimously demanded that this watershed be the occasion for a comprehensive overhaul of the internet regulation system. But Washington refused to countenance any change, and the talks got nowhere. Though not always for the same reasons, Brazil, China, India and Iran all share the EU’s position in opposing the US on this. Some countries are even threatening to create their own national regulation bodies, which could lead to a disastrous fragmentation of the net. The disagreement has a geopolitical dimension. In an ever more globalised world, communication is a precious strategic resource (see Own or share?). Its role is fundamental in an economy so dominated by the non-material. So control of the net could put whoever holds it at a decisive strategic advantage. In the 19th century control of sea routes (“ruling the waves”) was at the heart of the British empire’s enormous power. In theory, hegemony over the net gives the US the power to limit anyone’s access to any site in any country. It can also block emails anywhere in the world. So far, it has never done this. But technically it could, and a number of countries are worried by this potential. So this is the time to demand that Icann cease to answer to Washington. Instead, it should be turned into an independent organisation under UN supervision.
More about Ignacio Ramonet. Translated by Gulliver Cragg (1) See Ignacio Ramonet, Gaps in the net, Le Monde diplomatique, English language edition, January 2004. (2) http://www.icann.org and http://www.icann.net (3) The Guardian, London, 11 October 2005
English language editorial director: Wendy Kristianasen - all rights reserved © 1997-2005 Le Monde diplomatique.