Governments Grab for the Web

[Commentary] The Obama administration still doesn't seem to understand the whirlwind it reaped with its decision to give up stewardship of the open Internet.

The first Internet governance conference since that surprise March announcement was held last week. The State Department issued a statement before the conference urging everyone to avoid the issue: "We would discourage meeting participants from debating the reach or limitations of state sovereignty in Internet policy." But deciding who gets to govern the Internet was precisely why many attendees from 80 countries came to the NetMundial conference in Brazil. The host country's leftist president, Dilma Rousseff, opened the conference by declaring: "The participation of governments should occur with equality so that no country has more weight than others." The Russian representative objected to "the control of one government," calling for the United Nations to decide "international norms and other standards on Internet governance."

Authoritarian regimes want to control the Internet to preserve their power. President Barack Obama should revoke the plan to abandon the open Internet. The ugly spectacle of countries jockeying to control the Internet is a timely reminder of why the US should never give them the chance.