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Why is the internet unregulated.

bobhikes

Nondetermined
Premium Member
Was watching some history about changes in technology and something hit me. Each new broadcasting media was heavily regulated on release, none were without strict regulation. Even today, Radio, TV and Movies are all regulated. Why was the internet allowed to go about unregulated at least in the US?

Anybody know.
 

Earthtank

Active Member
Was watching some history about changes in technology and something hit me. Each new broadcasting media was heavily regulated on release, none were without strict regulation. Even today, Radio, TV and Movies are all regulated. Why was the internet allowed to go about unregulated at least in the US?

Anybody know.

You can't regulate the "internet" as a whole, you regulate the companies that put content on the internet, and there are some regulations in place. I don't know all the details but, companies like twitter, instragram, facebook and others have been and are being regulated in various ways. Some companies want to self-regulate, if that's even possible.
 

Brickjectivity

Turned to Stone. Now I stretch daily.
Staff member
Premium Member
Was watching some history about changes in technology and something hit me. Each new broadcasting media was heavily regulated on release, none were without strict regulation. Even today, Radio, TV and Movies are all regulated. Why was the internet allowed to go about unregulated at least in the US?

Anybody know.
Rough outline:

The internet started as a technology. The technology was adopted by universities, and they used it to form a public internet, separate from the original military internet. They came up with public standards. Public institutions such as ieee were formed and provided a forum for agreement about technical standards for networking devices, and the internet protocols were included in that process. A hacker ethic prevailed, and the sentiment was one of maintaining an open documentation of all internet protocols. This was reinforced by occasional government blunders. The government showed it didn't understand how things worked. It still does today.

ICANN was an organization formed in the interest of keeping internet control out of the hands of governments.

Originally there were only some root servers which provided the addresses for each internet name. When I began to learn about this in the 1990's there were 13 root servers worldwide, and all other servers relied upon these. ICANN controlled these root servers, and that was how the internet IP addresses were managed.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
Rough outline:

The internet started as a technology. The technology was adopted by universities, and they used it to form a public internet, separate from the original military internet. They came up with public standards. Public institutions such as ieee were formed and provided a forum for agreement about technical standards for networking devices, and the internet protocols were included in that process. A hacker ethic prevailed, and the sentiment was one of maintaining an open documentation of all internet protocols. This was reinforced by occasional government blunders. The government showed it didn't understand how things worked. It still does today.

ICANN was an organization formed in the interest of keeping internet control out of the hands of governments.

Originally there were only some root servers which provided the addresses for each internet name. When I began to learn about this in the 1990's there were 13 root servers worldwide, and all other servers relied upon these. ICANN controlled these root servers, and that was how the internet IP addresses were managed.
And even before then, computers were hooked up with a point-to-point protocol (UUCP!) and email was exchanged by specifying the exact set of servers that would handle the mail.

So the summary is that the internet developed bottom up and was initially used by responsible people to exchange messages etc. Then of course it started reflecting society and went downhill. :(
 

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
Was watching some history about changes in technology and something hit me. Each new broadcasting media was heavily regulated on release, none were without strict regulation. Even today, Radio, TV and Movies are all regulated. Why was the internet allowed to go about unregulated at least in the US?

Anybody know.

Seems to be regulated in a number of countries.
I think at this time in the US, an unregulated internet is beneficial to business. I suspect there is a lot of pressure/bribery to keep it that way.
 

robocop (actually)

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Was watching some history about changes in technology and something hit me. Each new broadcasting media was heavily regulated on release, none were without strict regulation. Even today, Radio, TV and Movies are all regulated. Why was the internet allowed to go about unregulated at least in the US?

Anybody know.
I know I know!

Because of the deep state. They were thinking WW III might happen and they would be the survivors. They wanted the Internet unregulated so they could use it to rebuild quickly for the ensuing war.

I read that in a book: I am trying to remember the title.
 

Jainarayan

ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय
Staff member
Premium Member
Seems to be regulated in a number of countries.

Yep, consider the virtual Google blackout in the PRC. In the US it's "There's nothing you can't find through Google". In the PRC it's "There's nothing you can find through Google".
 

Heyo

Veteran Member
So the summary is that the internet developed bottom up and was initially used by responsible people to exchange messages etc. Then of course it started reflecting society and went downhill. :(
I remember the advent of AOL, internet for the masses. The typical AOL user (pronounced A-O-Looser) couldn't distinguish his IP address from his mac address but demanded that we answer his questions on usenet "because I paid for the internet".
 

Heyo

Veteran Member
Seems to be regulated in a number of countries.
I think at this time in the US, an unregulated internet is beneficial to business. I suspect there is a lot of pressure/bribery to keep it that way.
Depends on what you mean with internet. In the olden days it meant the uncensored exchange of ideas via computer. Today it often means the uncontrolled oligopoly of the ISPs. While the former is a good thing, the later is dangerous and expensive.
 

robocop (actually)

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
I know I know!

Because of the deep state. They were thinking WW III might happen and they would be the survivors. They wanted the Internet unregulated so they could use it to rebuild quickly for the ensuing war.

I read that in a book: I am trying to remember the title.
I'm pretty sure that book is "Visions" by Michio Kaku.
 

Nimos

Well-Known Member
Was watching some history about changes in technology and something hit me. Each new broadcasting media was heavily regulated on release, none were without strict regulation. Even today, Radio, TV and Movies are all regulated. Why was the internet allowed to go about unregulated at least in the US?

Anybody know.
If they regulated it, how would the politicians be able to surf porn then? :D
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
Was watching some history about changes in technology and something hit me. Each new broadcasting media was heavily regulated on release, none were without strict regulation. Even today, Radio, TV and Movies are all regulated. Why was the internet allowed to go about unregulated at least in the US?

Anybody know.

The internet is global, US regulators have no say in the EU, the EU regulators have no say in India, India regulators have no say in Brazil, Brazilian regulators have no say in Russia etc, etc, etc.

The internet is not just the US or any single country. And the way the internet works relies on routers and servers in various countries to make connections.

An example of this is my connection to RF which i ran a traceroute on and found the hops to be - France (my provider), Germany, Spain, Morocco, United States (cloudflair), United States (RF).

If any one of those hops stopped working for any reason, or was busy handing to much data to take another request then a different route would be found almost immediately

Some countries have attempted with varying degrees of success to regulate their bit of the WWW but any surfer worth their salt will know ways to bypass national blocks.
 

robocop (actually)

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Was watching some history about changes in technology and something hit me. Each new broadcasting media was heavily regulated on release, none were without strict regulation. Even today, Radio, TV and Movies are all regulated. Why was the internet allowed to go about unregulated at least in the US?

Anybody know.
"
I know I know!

Because of the deep state. They were thinking WW III might happen and they would be the survivors. They wanted the Internet unregulated so they could use it to rebuild quickly for the ensuing war.

I read that in a book: I am trying to remember the title."

Yep. It was from Michio Kaku "Visions."

"The Pentagon wanted to ensure that the leadership of the United States would survive to command our nuclear forces as the war progressed."

"Bureaucratic rules, censorship, and government meddling would only retard the rebuilding of America in the race with the Soviet Union (to fight World War IV!). It was partly for that reason that the Internet was built without censors, rules, and regulations. ARPANET, which was conceived to link up the scientists and universities of the country, was modified to serve in this role. Eventually ARPANET became the Internet."
 

bobhikes

Nondetermined
Premium Member
You can't regulate the "internet" as a whole, you regulate the companies that put content on the internet, and there are some regulations in place. I don't know all the details but, companies like twitter, instragram, facebook and others have been and are being regulated in various ways. Some companies want to self-regulate, if that's even possible.

They do regulate broadcast ranges as a whole. Anyone can make a devise to broadcast FM or AM radiowaves and UHV or Digital signals yet the FCC and government have strict regulations and will shut you down if you don't follow them.
 
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