Yet more hypocrisy from the U.S. government, sadly from both parties. My hypocrisy-meter has become a bit de-sensitized though with all the scandals, bigotry and stupidity, so this actually comes in rather low.
The U.S. wants to keep control of the DNS, or domain name resolution, system even though the rest of the world wants to share control via the U.N. or ITU or another appropriate body. This is the system that makes sure when you go to a URL, you get a particular website. If there is a split, it will no longer be the “World”-wide web, but the “U.S.”-wide web and the “non-U.S.”-wide web.
The hypocrisy factor comes in that U.S. officials are afraid that totalatarian regimes would use this shared control to control access to content for their citizens. Never mind China already does this by physically controlling every internet access point into/out of the country. But the U.S. recently butted in and told ICANN, who currently oversees DNS, to hold off on creating a .xxx domain for adult sites, even though it was agreed upon via the normal process and many feel it is a good way to segregate inappropriate content into its own area. (Obviously the Bush administration is pandering to its far right constituency and balking at the idea of the U.S. government in some shape or fashion condoning adult sexual content). If we’re going to censor DNS and let politics enter into its control, why do we think its better when we do this then when some other country does it? The U.S. is by no means a leader in civil rights in this century. That was our crown in the 60s and 70s, but sweetie, we lost that a long time ago.