[governance] Internet - whether to regulate it or not

[Suresh Ramasubramanian]

Thank you. It is extremely difficult to find unbiased literature on net 
neutrality anywhere much, with activists obsessed with title 2 regulation 
as a panacea on one side and people who have shall we say a more free 
market outlook on the other.



On 6 October 2014 1:31:53 am Lee W McKnight <lmcknigh at syr.edu> wrote:

> Re net neutrality regulation merits and demerits, this post re 'Why is 
> network neutrality like playing chess with a pigeon?'  might be of interest 
> in this context of what and when to regulate the Internet.
>
>
> http://www.martingeddes.com/network-neutrality-like-pigeons-playing-chess/
>
>
> It could be taken to be from a Scotsman's/nearly independent small state 
> point of view....of statistical multiplexing  ; )
>
>
> Lee
>
> ________________________________
> From: governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org 
> <governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org> on behalf of Milton L Mueller 
> <mueller at syr.edu>
> Sent: Sunday, October 5, 2014 2:23 PM
> To: governance at lists.igcaucus.org; parminder; 
> &lt,bestbits at lists.bestbits.net&gt,
> Subject: RE: [governance] Internet - whether to regulate it or not
>
>
>
> From: governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org 
> [mailto:governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org] On Behalf Of parminder
>
>
> Throughout this email, you seamlessly move between UN based international 
> law making and US law making, which may get forced on the world bec of the 
> US's economic and technical might, as if there isnt any real substantive 
> difference between the two...
>
> MM: Nope. I make it very clear when I am talking about one or the other. 
> Your point was “the U.S.” was preventing us from talking about certain 
> issues. My contention was simply that the U.S. is talking about those 
> things extensively at its own domestic level, and that indeed, many of 
> those dialogues originated in the U.S. and went transnational. No confusion 
> as to levels.
>
> When did I say there is no global discussion on net neutrality ?
>
> MM: In your original post. Glad to see you backing off here.
>
> ... As for the resistance to it and the resources thrown in for that sake I 
> have historical details of how an NN debate and position forming got 
> resisted on the IGC list as well in the MAG, for years, before it was 
> finally taken up this year,
>
> MM: Another factual error. See this, a NN workshop from 2011:
> http://intgovforum.org/cms/component/content/article?id=883:ig4d-workshop-183-a-possible-framework-for-global-net-neutrality
>
> Yes, I know the European Commission as well as Council of Europe has been 
> working on it, and I have participated especially in the latter's effort.
>
> MM: So apparently the “US” effort to prevent discussion has failed there, too.
>
> Well, yes. How much ever may I like to, we are just not able to come off 
> the colonial and post colonial yoke. Dont we still take everything of worth 
> from the west?
>
> MM: A typical Parminderism. Someone notes the irony of you claiming the 
> “the U.S.” is stopping us from discussing an issue that is being actively 
> discussed in large part because of US domestic politics, and you transmute 
> that into a claim that everything of worth originates from the West.
>
> Apart from US and its corporate allies being the chief instigators for 
> filtering the debates at the IGF,
>
> MM: The chief instigators of filtering debates at the IGF are those who 
> don’t want to disturb the IG status quo, as you know well. But that camp 
> includes people in Europe, Latin America, Africa, Asia as well as “the 
> U.S.” I’ve run up against those filters as much as you have, btw, only 
> about 5 years before you. Ask yourself why I wasn’t asked to be on the IANA 
> transition panel at either Netmundial or IGF, for example. But I am from 
> the US. Why didn’t they welcome a fellow imperialist hegemonic white male? 
> How do you explain this, my friend? Maybe there are substantive policy 
> differences at stake that cannot be reduced to 1970s-vintage state-centric 
> worldviews? Maybe “the US” is the wrong label to be using to characterize 
> your enemies? Your whole mentality is still locked into the nation-state 
> mindset.
>
> The US rules the global Internet, politically and economically . Any civil 
> society actor whose chief aim is a better distribution of power (that at 
> least is what civil society used to be) would naturally make the US as its 
> chief target.
>
> MM: But redistributing power to whom, and for what purpose? First, it is 
> obvious that you are talking exclusively about a redistribution of power 
> among nation-states – an approach that is intrinsically hostile to civil 
> society. Further, I don’t think a redistribution that, say, strengthens the 
> Russian or Chinese states is anything to get excited about – or haven’t you 
> kept your eyes on what is happening in Hong Kong? Perhaps you will follow 
> Putin and Xi and blame all the HK unrest of “the U.S.”? All part of our 
> attempt to maintain global hegemony. So let’s suppress freedom and 
> democracy in Hong Kong so we have a better distribution of power?
>
> I don’t think strengthening the Indian or Turkish or South African states 
> is such a great idea, either. All of them seem to be more interested in 
> Internet control than anything else. Again I ask you to frame your debate 
> and discourse in terms of substantive policy choices and not polarized 
> power blocs centered on nation-states. Your mode of discourse is 
> essentially a Cold War mentality, where our political choices are centered 
> on being for or against the US.
>
>
>
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