How does Internet run? The obvious answer is that it runs by itself. Amazing, considering the fact that 1 out of every 6 person on this globe has access to the internet, over a billion people (1,076,203,987 to be exact) , demography larger than India and just shorter than China! Hard to believe that it all runs without any active intervention (maybe that is why it has been running) and some help from IANA keeping track of the IP Addresses and IEPG coordinating its worldwide operations. Things, however, are not as smooth as the beast grows. There are murmurs about US exercising overriding control on Internet.
So why is democracy, the most successful experiment in self governance not been applied to the Internet? Citizens in a democracy have a right to decide the policy, setup institutions and laws to govern themselves. And all citizens have equal rights to do so. If we accept democracy as the guiding star why do we, the little China, not apply the same to the internet? Is it not possible to create a Constitution that applies to the citizens on the Internet? Can we not formulate basic fundamental rights to guarantee right of anonymity, right to access any property on the Internet and of course, freedom of speech and pledge no discrimination? Flight of fancy – maybe, but so it seemed 60 years ago when 40 million Indians were trying to hard to wrest self governance from the British Empire!
It is a matter of time before Internet, as we know it today will become completely ungovernable. Cyber crimes are soaring, unmindful of the terrestrial laws that have jurisdictional limitations. International laws and treaties are slow and difficult to enforce. Laws are upheld when the larger majority agrees to abide by them and that too because it has taken an active step in legislating them.
Internet is a new country…..
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