[governance] who is responsible for balkanisation of the Internet

[parminder]

The below piece shows in simple and clear terms

1. who is responsible for balakanisation of the global Internet (wrong 
guesses - developing country governments, right guess - the US)

2. What needs to be done to stop it (wrong guess - more fluff in the 
name of Internet governance, right guess - international agreements 
about some basic decencies and protocols vis a vis the global Internet)

But as they say, one can wake up a sleeping person, but not someone who 
is pretending to be asleep... parminder


15 February 2014 Last updated at 19:22 GMT


  Data protection: Angela Merkel proposes Europe network

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is proposing building up a European 
communications network to help improve data protection.

It would avoid emails and other data automatically passing through the 
United States.

In her weekly podcast, she said she would raise the issue on Wednesday 
with French President Francois Hollande.

Revelations of mass surveillance by the US National Security Agency 
(NSA) have prompted huge concern in Europe.

Disclosures by the US whistleblower Edward Snowden suggested even the 
mobile phones of US allies, such as Mrs Merkel, had been monitored by 
American spies.

Classified NSA documents revealed that large amounts of personal data 
are collected from the internet by US and British surveillance.

Mrs Merkel criticised the fact that Facebook and Google can be based in 
countries with low levels of data protection while carrying out business 
in nations that offer more rigorous safeguards.

"Above all, we'll talk about European providers that offer security for 
our citizens, so that one shouldn't have to send emails and other 
information across the Atlantic," she said.

"Rather, one could build up a communication network inside Europe."

Sensitive

There was no doubt that Europe had to do more in the realm of data 
protection, she said.

A French official was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying that the 
government in Paris planned to take up the German initiative.

Personal privacy is a sensitive issue in Germany where extensive 
surveillance was carried out under the Nazis and in communist East Germany.

A foreign policy spokesman for Mrs Merkel's Christian Democrats, Philipp 
Missfelder, recently said revelations about US spying had helped bring 
relations with Washington down to their worst level since the US-led 
invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Germany has been trying to persuade Washington to agree to a "no-spy" 
agreement but without success.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26210053
BBC News

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