Docile No More: The Tussle to Redefine the Internet

The Internet and its technologies were largely designed by Americans, and thus mirror the values and beliefs of these pioneers: open, non-hierarchical, non-governmental, and self-organizing. Other nations with different beliefs want to change this. They want a larger role for governments and an end to America's "technological hegemony." Their motives are commercial and political, and they reflect a general annoyance with a laissez-faire approach to governance that works against security and that foreign observers believe is just a plot to provide advantages to U.S. companies and "control" to the U.S. government. Other governments want to reshape the principles baked into the rules and technology of the Internet. This in itself is interesting, but it may be more interesting to ask—now that the age of Internet pioneers is over and change is inevitable—what values and beliefs will guide it.