INTERNET: Governments and now also companies want to restrict free access to the World Wide Web.
In his best seller The World is Flat The American journalist Thomas L. Friedman describes globalization as a three-stage process: First, nations globalized themselves; they made free trade possible. Then came the companies; they became active worldwide and connected their procurement and sales systems across the entire globe. The third stage was the globalization of the individual; it was made possible through the unrestricted exchange of information on the Internet.
It is precisely this third stage that is increasingly at risk: Now that the regimes in China, Iran or Vietnam rigorously control the flow of information on their countries' Internet, American companies also want to restrict the freedom of the WWW. Among other things, this should make it possible for certain information to be transported faster, i.e. with more bandwidth, than others.
Is free and equal access to the Internet now also in danger in the democratic world?
The Economist describes “New walls on the web.”