As much as we might like to think that the grand, collective fantasy known as the Internet is somehow a free and sovereign, untouchable entity all unto itself, the Internet is under attack from many different directions. Extremely powerful forces desperately desire to control the Internet and all that it embodies — its financial resources and potential, its organizational qualities, and particularly its communications channels and the ability to efficiently transmit persuasive messages.
Attacks on the Internet are organized across three fronts: governments, big businesses and organized crime. You may wonder, “What’s the difference?” That’s a valid question, to be sure, but not the subject of this article. The subject of organized crime and the Internet has already been covered extensively in this column. Suffice it to say that organized crime wants to use the Internet to steal your money.
Discussing attacks against the Internet from governments and big business is a more complicated and messy proposition. We in the United States must deal with Internet attacks from three governments: State governments, the Federal government, and the United Nations. These attacks always seem to fall into three categories: money, privacy and free speech. States and the Fed want to tax things that are bought and sold on the Internet. This is understandable, in that our national Constitution allows for Congress to tax both interstate and foreign commerce. States have similar provisions regarding intrastate commerce. So, as much as we might not like it, there is a legal basis for taxing trade on the Internet.
However, there are no Constitutional provisions for usage taxes (in the U.S., we call these “fees”), which is exactly what bigwigs at the United Nations have in mind. Pressure is being put on U.N. member states to approve international taxes on commerce, and even a tax for using email. Stranger still is the desire for a “BIT” tax that would attach itself to every single “bit” of data crossing the Internet. The more data sent on the Internet, the higher the tax would be. These wealth redistribution schemes would, in the U.N.s words, “…raise funds from those who already have access to technology, with the proceeds used to extend the benefits to all.” Some U.S. Congress members and Senators think that these are wonderful ideas.
Last November, when the U.N. held its “World Summit on the Information Society” in Tunis, delegates found themselves too disorganized in the face of opposition from the Bush administration to come up with a coherent plan to tax the Internet. The meeting was not a total bust, though, as they were able to form a permanent group called the “Internet Governance Forum,” which holds its first meeting this week in Geneva. The problem is, the Internet does not need any new “governing.” There are no Internet problems that are not already being handled in a much better fashion than any government could hope to achieve.
Next week: privacy enemies of the Internet.