Who owns The Internet?

The internet is becoming a huge, out-of-control entity. There are 144,000 new domain names registered every day, 72 hours of videos are uploaded to Youtube every minute, and an estimated two billion people have access to the internet. Until now, the internet has done a rather good job of regulating itself, but regulators from 193 countries are part of a UN conference on whether control of the web should lie with the authorities.

There is, of course, a dark side to the Internet. Cybercrime was once the dream of sci-fi authors' fervent imaginations, but hacks and phishing have become common occurrences. A recent report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime has also highlighted a growing use of the Internet by terrorist groups. Clearly this side of the Internet needs to be policed, but most countries have dedicated taskforces to do just that.

At the same time, a balance needs to be struck between heavy-handed regulation on one hand and freedom of speech on the other. China is notorious for restricting access to certain websites, and it's been suggested that a recent internet blackout in war-torn Syria may have been a government attempt to block reports from the troubled country.

The UN debate on the subject has some worrying facets, the most concerning of which is a proposal from Russia claiming that governments should have "equal rights to manage the internee. This has been seen by many as an attempt to place control of the Internet in the hands of the Russian government.

Internet giant Google is fighting any proposals for censorship. Writing on CNN.com, Google's chief internet evangelist Vint Cerf said companies and engineers should be planning the future of the world wide web, rather than governments behind closed doors. "Transparency and openness are keys to informed participation in policy making", he said. Google has started an internet petition at www.freeandopenweb.com, which has attracted almost 3 million signatures from around the world. Voices from inside the conference have also spoken against censorship, with European commissioner for digital agenda Neelie Kroes tweeting that: "The internet works, it doesn't need to be regulated by ITR treaty. If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

At the time of writing, the UN debate is far from over, but even if nothing comes of it, it still has worrying implications for the future of the internet. We believe the internet should be free from censorship or surveillance unless it's absolutely necessary. The governments of some countries seem to think otherwise.