Government Regulation of the Internet

Government Regulation of the Internet: Good or Bad?

Along with the advent of information technology, also came the internet connecting people through the digital medium where geographical demarcations and political boundaries are virtually removed. Space and distance are virtually diminished by programming codes that the world virtually “shrunk” with the introduction of the internet. The rate of exchange and availability of information also became dizzying that the cyberspace virtually became a “parallel universe” of our physical world.

And just like the physical world, online problems became present that the call to regulate the cyberspace mounted. The digital personality which Netizens assumed in the cyberspace loosened up with their personality becoming invisible. And

“the growing incidence of online fraud and identity theft, privacy incursions, copyright infringements, trademark violations, domain name disputes, spamming, computer viruses, inadequate or vaguely defined consumer protection laws, and terrorist-related and pornographic websites has fuelled such concerns” (David 2006).

These issues necessitated internet governance to regulate the decentralized, scalable and even anarchaic nature of the cyberspace. Since something is already is going wrong in the cyberspace, that the police power of the state should be called to regulate. This however raised concern of whether the government should step in and exercise its regulatory power in the cyberspace. Further questions were raised that if the government steps in and intervene in the cyberspace, whether it will be effective in promoting the ideal behavior in the internet and curb electronic malfeasance.

Since the cyberspace’s geopolitical demarcation is virtually erased, the question whether government should step in the internet became in itself questionable. Given that with the issues spawned by the cyberspace are disturbing, that it now become an imperative to maintain an acceptable...