Don't You Love the EU?

This has certainly been on the cards for a while. I suspect the truth is, a free internet is not what many in power want to see. In fact, it’s arguably what most governments want to see eliminated. Well, it seems our good friends at the EU have decided to put their mouths on the table and get down to business.

Breaking America's grip on the net

After troubled negotiations in Geneva, the US may be forced to relinquish control of the internet to a coalition of governments

Forced? Really? An interesting choice of words. I wonder what kind of ‘force’ the gentle volk from the EU have in mind?

You would expect an announcement that would forever change the face of the internet to be a grand affair - a big stage, spotlights, media scrums and a charismatic frontman working the crowd.

But unless you knew where he was sitting, all you got was David Hendon's slightly apprehensive voice through a beige plastic earbox. The words were calm, measured and unexciting, but their implications will be felt for generations to come.
Well at least he had the good grace to sound apprehensive.

Hendon is the Department for Trade and Industry's director of business relations and was in Geneva representing the UK government and European Union at the third and final preparatory meeting for next month's World Summit on the Information Society. He had just announced a political coup over the running of the internet.
Oh really? A political coup, is it? Another interesting choice of words. And quite revealing, I think.

Old allies in world politics, representatives from the UK and US sat just feet away from each other, but all looked straight ahead as Hendon explained the EU had decided to end the US government's unilateral control of the internet and put in place a new body that would now run this revolutionary communications medium.
The EU has decided? The EU?

Here’s a fascinating snippet, though:

A number of countries represented in Geneva, including Brazil, China, Cuba, Iran and several African states, insisted the US give up control, but it refused. The meeting "was going nowhere", Hendon says, and so the EU took a bold step and proposed two stark changes: a new forum that would decide public policy, and a "cooperation model" comprising governments that would be in overall charge.
Uh huh. China, Cuba, Iran? I bet they want the US to give up control.

God only hopes the US will lose limbs before it does so.

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