A squabble over who controls the internet had threatened to overshadow the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunisia. But a “compromise” deal was reached just before the meeting opened, under which America will retain its hegemony for the time being. This leaves delegates free to discuss bridging the digital divide between rich and poor countries.
Nothing has done as much to hasten the spread around the world of fact, fiction or rumour as the internet. The rapid dissemination of information from a wide variety of sources, from reputable news organisations to lone bloggers, has fostered an openness unforeseen when the internet was created as part of an American military-research project in the 1960s. And the web is widely accepted as a key component of the technological revolution that has boosted global productivity and wealth.
It is therefore ironic that the United Nations’ World Summit on the Information Society was hosted by Tunisia. Discussions on the future of a technology that derives much of its success from the fact that it is decentralised, unregulated and largely uncontrolled will take place in a country reluctant to embrace political freedoms and human rights.
Nevertheless, the host country’s poor rights record is unlikely to cause much of a stir among the gathered cyber-throng in Tunis. The main theme of the summit is the “digital divide” between rich and poor countries. In the run-up to the event, it looked as if this might be overshadowed by squabbles over America’s internet hegemony. But a last-minute deal before the summit opened leaves the way clear for the delegates to focus on how to make the internet available to half the world’s population by 2015, compared with just 14% online now.
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