Internet: A Herd in Globalization

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There is the nagging question at the threshold of globalization: Should internet be subjected to regulation and censorship? In Russia, for instance, complaints have been raised by internet nerds that the country's online surveillance through "bottling up" and "blocking" for the sake of national security was arbitrary. Politicians and technocrats justified website shutdown for four hours as a necessary evil to clip the wings of political opposition as experienced in Turkey. The Iranian president made once a passionate appeal to the Iranian parliament to brand high speed internet as un-Islamic. Iran's young educated population expressed disgusts, organized mass rallies and countered that waiting for hours for an internet signal is below human dignity. I remember reading The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas L. Friedman, describing internet as a manifestation of globalization. It is a herd which can initiate a stampede when alarm is raised. Censorship and regulation are an anachronism which belie cold war mentality.