Years ago, the nations of the world signed a space treaty. No, this isn’t a recap of the latest Mass Effect 2 DLC. It basically said, “OK, space exploration will be for the benefit of all mankind. All areas of space belong equally to all nations.” Ludicrous, by the way, the thought that we should have any sort of sway over the stars. The point is: we came together, at least on the surface, for the benefit of every person on the planet. With that in mind: how would you react to a similar Internet treaty? Something the nations of the world can get behind in order to save the Internet?
It’s a real proposal, and it was unveiled last week at the Internet Governance Forum in Lithuania.
The gist of it is that the treaty would make it easier to enact cross-border “cooperation” between countries with respect to security vulnerabilities and cyberterrorism.
Vague enough for you? That’s partially why I’m looking at this like, “What are you on about?”
The treaty would also enshrine the idea of net neutrality. That is, all Internet Service Providers must treat all bits equally no matter their source or their destination.
If there’s someone to “blame”? Well, the Council of Europe made the proposal, so feel free to get angry at various European élites.