As of recent, there have been many attacks against the Internet. Legislation has been fed through tubes to try to heavily regulate the web and its wealth of media. Of course, without missing a beat, its users have vehemently protested against any sort of regulation, be it lawful or not. I’ve been thinking recently though, is the Internet really truly at stake?
The net itself is such a powerful tool. To regulate it would take a heavy amount of resources and regulations (obviously). Before regulation can even happen, there needs to be tools set into place to carry out said regulation.While this doesn’t seem that difficult, I’ve spent enough time lurking the weirdest areas of the web to know that there are a lot of people who know how to dismantle almost anything the government can throw at them. When Egypt’s net became censored, many people spread ways for them to get around the censorship to communicate with the outside world. I’ve also, unfortunately, been on the receiving end of some rather disgusting hacking that has not only torn my computer apart, but ended up wiping my personal data completely.
With all these laws being considered and speculated, people have become afraid that something will actually put a damper on the beloved Internet. If anything, it will only cause a surge of protests against said regulation and make nothing but trouble for the people in charge of making sure the laws are being followed. I personally believe that even if legislation is passed, there are enough people that are intelligible in ways to circumvent and spread the net back to those ignorant in the methods.
While none of this will stop the legislation from coming into effect, it may be more difficult for them to enforce it as time goes on. More and more, people are reading up ways to “stock up” in the war waged by Congress. While that sounds somewhat conspiracy-oriented, it’s something no one can deny. The Internet is locked in a war with regulation. However, it’s going to be incredibly difficult for anyone to do anything to keep the net under wraps for long thanks to the wealth of information. All you need to do is tune in and absorb as much as possible.