Who Controls The Internet?: Illusions of a Borderless World, by Jack Goldsmith & Tim Wu

Posted August 4th, 2008 by Taran

Thomas Friedman wrote that the World is Flat, but the Internet has proven to be less than flat on more than one occasion. Nations allow their interpretations of the Internet to their populations, the First Amendment of the United States isn't enacted the same way in most parts of the world (and in extreme cases simply does not exist), and generally speaking, the hyper-libertarianism that came with the Internet does not seem substantiated. In essence, the Emperor not only has no clothing - the Emperor is seen differently around the world, depending on the accident of one's geopolitical residence. In China, the government filters anything that it finds harmful through the very technology that allegedly was to make censorship something routed around: the very routers themselves.

The brave new world of the Internet is only an evolution of pre-Internet society, not a quantum leap as was initially expected. That there are different links for different nations and languages, that IP addresses are tracked to ascertain locale of the user and to assure appropriate content gets there - these are not things that the average internet user thinks about on a daily basis. But it was not always so.

Who Controls the Internet?: Illusions of a Borderless World explores the history of the Internet and the effects it has had on society - as well as the impact that society has had on the Internet. From the days when Jon Postel challenging the United States Government for root control of the Internet all the way up to present day China, the way that nations filter information is explored and explained, with specific examples ranging from Napster's file sharing and the Kazaa evolution and eventual demise to Yahoo's issues with France in the context of users selling Nazi paraphernalia. China's Internet, which is vastly different from that which people from other countries have seen, demonstrates that a government can successfully filter and inject it's own agenda into what Chinese Internet users have available. Even the WTO ruling on Antigua's claims for loss of income due to US Law are explored - as well as many other issues that the Internet has tolerated.

The authors effectively demonstrate the impact of international law on the Internet as well as the power that governments and courts have to address issues related to the Internet. While they did explore China and how China can effectively censor incoming information (using Cisco routers, no less), it also shows models of how any government can impact the Internet in indirect ways - such as the US government's pressure on credit card companies that were part of payment for gambling websites. The authors also explore the balance of how all this authority is being used on a global level - and some of the tug-of-wars that have happened since then.

I found the book well written, informative and a bit of a treasure when it comes to the geopolitical history of the Internet - but it managed to somehow miss the privacy issues within the United States itself, something which Daniel Solove did write about in The Digital Person. The complexity of how private information is screened and even used within the United States and servers housed within the United States should probably have made it into 'Who Controls The Internet'. Certainly, China has become a headline almost any time because of the way it handles Internet filtering - but there are instances where even the people who are the 'good guys' aren't so good.

In all, I give Who Controls the Internet?: Illusions of a Borderless World a KnowProSE.com 8 out of 10. It lacked some things, but it certainly compensated for that with it's depth in other topics - and it comes as a book which I recommend to anyone trying to understand how the Internet has changed and will continue to change - as well as anything associated with the Internet, such as virtual worlds. This is a must read for web entrepreneurs, and a highly recommended read to any internet user.