USA only, no Mexicans or Canadians. Feel free to chime in if you are not USA-an. But your opinion is not relevant if you are not familiar with American culture. And contrary to popular worldly opinion, American culture is actually not what you see TV.
Of course your initial reaction to this question will be no. But please do think about it for a while before posting.
Question: would you be open to having the US government regulate the Internet?
It is an interesting question because it transcends normal Left and Right thinking. Leftists tend to like regulation while Right Wingers value "freedom" above all else. But in this case, I seriously doubt Lefties would support this kind of regulation. Some Right Wingers may like it, however, because of the security it would provide.
The last thing I want is the government to tell me what web sites I can look at.
But if the Internet stays its course, which has been a "Wild West" for the past decade, then I think there may be an even bigger risk. Newspaper/TV/Cable media has already taken a noticable decline in legitimacy. For instance, the SF Chronicle, once an honorable, trustworthy newspaper, is now basically a tabloid. You have Fox News and MSNBC, both biased.
In short, the "normal, trustworthy" news outlets are fading away. (I understand they were never trustworthy to begin with, but I fear they are much less trustworthy than before).
Furthermore, there are so many news outlets on the Internet that you cannot determine which ones are trustworthy and which ones are profit and agenda-driven. And clearly the profit and agenda-driven websites will succeed over the trustworthy ones simply because they are making money.
Regulation would allow the government to say: "www.xxxnewssite.com is approved by the US Government." So at least you have American citizens doing the regulations. That way you would be able to preserve at least some trustworthiness the news. Otherwise we would be subject to entirely corporate driven news. Which we already are, to a certain extent. I am aware that Government regulation of the Internet would be corrupt but I believe it might be lesser of two evils.
Anyway, I think at minimum it is an interesting thought. Curious to see if any of you find it interesting as well.
Of course your initial reaction to this question will be no. But please do think about it for a while before posting.
Question: would you be open to having the US government regulate the Internet?
It is an interesting question because it transcends normal Left and Right thinking. Leftists tend to like regulation while Right Wingers value "freedom" above all else. But in this case, I seriously doubt Lefties would support this kind of regulation. Some Right Wingers may like it, however, because of the security it would provide.
The last thing I want is the government to tell me what web sites I can look at.
But if the Internet stays its course, which has been a "Wild West" for the past decade, then I think there may be an even bigger risk. Newspaper/TV/Cable media has already taken a noticable decline in legitimacy. For instance, the SF Chronicle, once an honorable, trustworthy newspaper, is now basically a tabloid. You have Fox News and MSNBC, both biased.
In short, the "normal, trustworthy" news outlets are fading away. (I understand they were never trustworthy to begin with, but I fear they are much less trustworthy than before).
Furthermore, there are so many news outlets on the Internet that you cannot determine which ones are trustworthy and which ones are profit and agenda-driven. And clearly the profit and agenda-driven websites will succeed over the trustworthy ones simply because they are making money.
Regulation would allow the government to say: "www.xxxnewssite.com is approved by the US Government." So at least you have American citizens doing the regulations. That way you would be able to preserve at least some trustworthiness the news. Otherwise we would be subject to entirely corporate driven news. Which we already are, to a certain extent. I am aware that Government regulation of the Internet would be corrupt but I believe it might be lesser of two evils.
Anyway, I think at minimum it is an interesting thought. Curious to see if any of you find it interesting as well.
