The spider in the web
By Ignacio Ramonet
November, Le Monde Diplomatique
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.
