net

Essay

WHO WATCHES

THE WATCHMEN?

Illustration by Kym Winters

While the internet remains an overwhelming force
for good, a number of recent events have led to
some very serious questions being asked about its future
direction and how it could be ‘reset’ to work in a better
way for everyone going forward. Various utopian and
dystopian visions of the internet have been suggested
and some of these may hinge on the future role played
by the tech giants that are currently dominating
the industry.
We may look back on this time as the tipping point.
Genuine questions are being raised about how best to
manage the internet’s challenges, and whether the
internet itself needs to be redesigned.
There are two ways to address these challenges: we
either reform the technology of the internet itself –
essentially resetting it – or we find a way to regulate what
we al ready have. Most l i kely we w i l l need a combination
of both approaches, so let’s look at these in turn.

SELF-REGULATION OR
GOVERNMENT INFLUENCE?
The main argument made against government regulation
is that it’s hard to regulate something that crosses
international boundaries and isn’t centrally controlled.
Other than ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers), there are no global internet
authorities that are solely responsible for our internet

experience. There is nothing an individual government

can do to meaningfully influence the internet, and even

those countries that attempt to impose some levels of

control or censorship can only do so much.

If individual governments cannot implement a

meaningful solution, perhaps we need a global approach.

Could a globally endorsed treaty for the internet be the

solution, whereby every country agrees to pursue a

common internet agenda? A Paris Agreement for the

internet, if you will. While such an agreement would be

a laudable achievement, I suspect it would be nigh-on

impossible to achieve such a technical level of agreement

among all 193 UN member countries that could make any

meaningful impact.

BUILDING A BRAVE NEW INTERNET

So, what would a ‘new’ internet look like? If we took

today’s most advanced technologies and attempted to

build something new – that retains all the benefits of

the internet, while avoiding all of the drawbacks – what

would that look like?

Many of those who operate the internet today – and

even those who played a major part in its original design

• are attempt ing to ans wer this ver y quest ion, w ith some
  interesting results.
  Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide
  web, leads Sol id, an MIT project that proposes decoupl ing

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Simon Yeoman asks: is it time to regulate the

internet or can it be left to its own devices?