Who owns the Internet? The Internet is owned by a private company, ICANN
Did you know that the Internet we all use is not just like the earth and air, it is an invention that belongs to certain people?
People who control it, make money on it and can influence every Internet user.
☑️ In 2024, more than 5 billion people use the Internet - this is 66% of the world's population.
☑️ And Russians spend 8 hours 21 minutes a day here. And they are among the top ten countries whose online presence takes up more than 50% of their waking time.
Daily time spent on the Internet by country
Initially, the Internet was developed for the military. At the height of the Cold War, the United States created a communication system that could work even in the event of a nuclear attack. It was thanks to military developments that the technologies that formed the basis of the Internet appeared.
So the whole world believes that it was created by the Americans in 1969.
But in the USSR, the Internet could have appeared ten years earlier.
I suggest we figure out,
❓ how did these technologies develop in superpowers?
❓ How did it happen that the Internet became available to everyone?
❓ And who, in fact, is the owner of the Internet?
IN THE BEGINNING, THERE WAS A PROJECT
The year is 1957. The USSR launches the first artificial satellite of the Earth.
If the whole world was pleasantly surprised, then the Americans were very puzzled.
⏭ Firstly, this threatened espionage from space, from which it is almost impossible to hide.
⏭ And, secondly, the Pentagon understood that the Soviet Union could destroy all military communications of the enemy.
Once a rocket appeared that sends a satellite into orbit, what would it cost it to deliver a bomb to the US soil?
The military asked scientists a question: “How can the US maintain defense communications in the event of a nuclear war?” They answered: “We need to create a “survivable” network that will not have a single control center. Even if some part is destroyed, it will continue to work.”
Scientists promised that computers will be able to share information even over a distance. Under this pretext, a million dollars were allocated for the development of the forefather of the Internet.
Meanwhile, in the USSR, military engineer Anatoly Kitov, regardless of the plans of the Americans, realized the importance of unifying communications between computers.
In 1959, he sent Khrushchev a project in which he proposed to create a single network to solve various problems. In peacetime, it would work for the economy, and in wartime, it would switch to defense.
The M-100 model performed one hundred thousand operations per second and was intended for air defense. According to the engineer, this project “will allow us to overtake the United States in the field of using computers (electronic computers) without catching up with them.”
Kitov’s plan was much more ambitious than the Americans’. They only wanted to provide the Pentagon with reliable communications, while our engineer dreamed of creating an artificial brain for the country’s main needs.
❌ But the USSR Ministry of Defense refused to combine civilian and military tasks.
❌ And the party leadership did not like the fact that they wanted to replace them with “electronic brains.”
⚠️ And the “Soviet Internet” project was rejected.
In general, this is how the bureaucracy buried the very promising ideas of the greatest scientist.
In general, a network implies the presence of many nodes. In the context of the Internet, nodes mean computers.
☑️ In 1962, another Soviet scientist, Viktor Glushkov, proposed creating a three-tier OGAS network independent of the military.
☑️ At the first level, a computer center in Moscow.
☑️ At the second level, auxiliary centers in 200 large cities.
☑️ At the third level, 20 thousand terminals in USSR enterprises.
☑️ Communication would be two-way, so that Moscow would not only process data, but also issue commands. Moreover, this would be done automatically based on the State Planning Committee.
The way the system was supposed to work is similar to artificial intelligence.
Neural networks find patterns in data and, based on them, offer solutions, depending on the task. And here the system would collect information on the economy, manage it, and also model development options.
☑️ In the future, Glushkov dreamed of switching to electronic money, abolishing cash and building a society of abundance under communism.
And everything was quite real:
⏯ by that time, the Soviet cyberneticist had created computers that were significantly ahead of the developments of the American IBM.
⏯ He is also the creator of MIR - the prototype of a modern computer that fit on a desktop. Let me remind you that in those days, computers occupied entire rooms.
The implementation of this project would have cost 20 billion rubles. At that time, this was like the annual budget for space and defense combined. But after three five-year plans, the project would have brought in 100 billion!
✅ Glushkov's idea was supported by Alexei Kosygin, First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.
❌But officials from the statistics department and the state planning department spoke out against it.
It seems that they were afraid of the thought that artificial intelligence would take the helm, and they themselves would be left out in the cold.
There was another fear: the computer could reveal abuses of power and other "shortcomings" at the local level.
Economists who later ended up in the United States openly spoke out against Glushkov.
⚠️ That is, again, officials spoke out against very promising ideas!
The States found out about Glushkov's grandiose plan. There they understood: with such large-scale informatization, the USSR economy would accelerate, which threatened to lose the Cold War.
Against this background, the media began to criticize Glushkov and his project. In America, an article was published called “Punch Card Controls the Kremlin.” It presented a scenario in which the Kremlin elite was replaced by computers.
In England, they wrote that this was an instrument for total surveillance of citizens and their expenses.
According to Glushkov himself, both articles scared the USSR managers.
⚠️ That is, what would have made the USSR a very promising state was stopped by officials, because they were intimidated by the West that it would be impossible to steal and do other shady deeds.
Let me remind you that all this happened just after the Stalin era, when officials, after strict control from Stalin, realized that they could relax, build up fat and get rich. And then there was control again. Western intelligence agencies knew where to push. And they pushed.
The scientist's project was put on hold, giving the Americans a head start. They didn't waste any time.
Joseph Licklider made public the idea of creating a branched network of computers in the USA.
⏯ This was the first step towards the implementation of ARPAnet, the prototype of the modern Internet.
❗️ By the way, Glushkov presented his sketch to Khrushchev back in February 1964 — several months before the American!
⏯ On October 29, 1969, US scientists were able to connect two computers at a distance of 600 km.
⏯ The first word that was successfully transmitted over the network was "login".
However, only on the second try. The first time, only two letters "lo" were sent, and one of the processors crashed. An hour later, the entire word was transmitted.
CYBERGON
At first, the Pentagon refused to share the technology with the rest of the world.
➡️ But in 1973, ARPAnet finally became international. Organizations from Great Britain and Norway joined it.
➡️ In 1977, the web included 100 computers.
➡️ And by 1983, this figure had reached 4,000. It covered organizations in all US states, including the Hawaiian Islands.
The signal was transmitted across the ocean using satellite communications.
At the same time, the US was closely monitoring its rival. Back in the early 60s, the CIA created a department to study the Soviet cyber threat.
One of Kennedy's advisers wrote that by 1970, the USSR would be able to create a radically new technology with computers that could learn on their own. And he warned that in this case, America would “come to an end”.
Kitov's works were translated and published in the US. Glushkov was offered to move overseas to give lectures. They promised to pay him a million dollars, but he flatly refused. After that, two assassination attempts were made on the cyberneticist. Someone was really scared of his developments.
➡️ In 1983, the term "Internet" was assigned to ARPAnet.
➡️ The network was then switched to the IP protocol, or Internet Protocol, which is still used to connect networks.
Simply put, computers began to speak the same language. Each device on the Internet is assigned an IP address. It is with its help that intelligence agencies or hackers can figure out where the user is located.
In general, the Internet has made the work of intelligence agencies easier. They do not need to sit in ambush all day and eavesdrop on something. Now FBI employees monitor the entire world in comfortable offices. Presidents, politicians, and ordinary citizens are under surveillance.
Former CIA employee Edward Snowden revealed that the US authorities have complete control over cellular networks, e-mail correspondence, and other means of communication back in 2013.
They also carry out cyber attacks against other countries, including Russia.
Only organizations approved by the US Department of Defense could use ARPAnet. Therefore, institutes that had no connection with the military decided to organize their own network.
➡️ This is how NSFNet appeared in 1984.
➡️ In 1988, the military network faced a serious problem: it was hacked. The first cybercriminal in history infected 10% of computers with a worm.
He did not plan to make money from hacking and created the virus as an experiment. But his attack showed how vulnerable people are on the Internet.
➡️ While they were dealing with the virus, organizations began to connect to the student network.
The advantages were significant: data transfer speeds were twice as high, operation was stable, plus there was no need to cooperate with the military.
➡️ In 1990, the ARPANET network was officially shut down,
➡️ and NSFNet began working with business structures.
➡️ The Internet became publicly available in 1991, when the first website in history was published. It was dedicated to the World Wide Web project, and described the Internet and how to use it.
The site still works in its original form. And the well-known three WWW is an abbreviation of the words world wide web.
➡️ In the USSR, scientists got access to the Internet back in the late 70s. Then “Akademset” was created — a computer network for scientific institutions.
➡️ But, so to speak, the World Wide Web appeared on a large scale on August 28, 1990.
➡ Then a Soviet computer first connected to a terminal in Helsinki.
➡ In September, the address, or domain, “.su” was registered, which means “Soviet Union” in abbreviated English.
➡ The first Soviet network was called “Relcom”. It became the progenitor of Runet.
➡ Already in 1991, the volume of internal information began to exceed the volume from outside. This means that for our citizens, the content of the Soviet Internet was more important than the international one.
➡ Well, the well-known .ru domain appeared only in 1994, after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
WHO OWNS THE INTERNET
Today, it is believed that no one controls the Internet: neither an organization, nor a government. That it is a free association of networks of different countries, providers and companies. And there is no red button that will turn off the entire Internet.
But this is not entirely true.
The Internet resembles the US Federal Reserve System, which prints dollars. Behind the seemingly state structure are private companies. And if the basis of the Federal Reserve is 12 banks, then with the Web everything is much more complicated.
▶️ The rules of the global network are regulated by ICANN - the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
▶️ This company was controlled by the US government and could veto any decision of the corporation. Many countries feared that if relations with the States deteriorated, they would disrupt the work of national networks.
For example, during the invasion of Iraq, the US repeatedly blocked the Iraqi domain “.ik”, which is why the Internet in the country did not work.
In 2016, the US lost control over the organization and it formally became independent. But its rules clearly state: it is subject to the laws of California, the place where it is registered.
That is, ICANN, a private company that controls the World Wide Web, is under the influence of American law.
And Congress can pass a law that will require the organization to take certain actions. If a dispute arises, it will be considered by an American court, not an international one.
▶️ ICANN is managed by a board of directors of 21 people. Only 15 of them have the right to vote.
That is, the Internet is made up of individuals who can be pressured.
That is, like the US dollar, the Internet is controlled by a similar scheme and also belongs to Western oligarchs.
▶️ Physically, the Internet is provided by transnational corporations, or first-tier providers. They own 13 root servers that operate in the DNS system. Their main task is to exchange information with each other. It is DNS that helps browsers find website addresses by their names.
10 servers are located in the United States, another 3 are in Sweden, the Netherlands, and Japan. That is, in countries that are friends with the States.
There are dozens of mirror servers, some of them in Russia. If you turn off the server, the information will be duplicated on the “mirrors”, but there will be interruptions in communication. It will be simply impossible to access some sites.
Tier one providers invest huge amounts of money in infrastructure development, for example, in laying fiber optic cables that connect the networks of different countries and continents. And then they sell traffic, or the volume of information in the network, to national operators.
That is, theoretically, it is possible to put pressure on large corporations so that they stop cooperating with the country's operators.
It is enough to adopt sanctions or laws. Yes, such actions require a strict legislative framework. But they are possible.
For example, Russia has already been excluded from international sports and cut off from SWIFT. And if the US puts pressure on the right people, it is possible to disconnect Russia from the Internet.
Plus, the Internet can be physically destroyed if the fiber optic cable is damaged. So in early March, the Yemeni Houthis cut the cables in the Red Sea between Europe, Asia and Africa. Western services banned in Russia, Facebook and Instagram, immediately collapsed.
It was because of such threats that Putin signed the law on the sovereign Internet in 2019. According to it, a structure for the stable operation of the network is being created in Russia, and Roskomnadzor (Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media) will manage the RuNet.
This is not necessary to “put up an iron curtain,” but to ensure the electronic security of the country.
Then, even if we are disconnected from the Internet, we will not be left without the Internet and will be able to access domestic sites.
But how many cries Russia's enemies made then, like Putin is lowering the iron curtain!
In fact, this is a very important law that created its own independent information platform. It is like national money, akin to abandoning the dollar.
It is also important that Roskomnadzor blocks resources that lie, call for riots and illegal actions.
The problem is that RuNet has become a victim of American censorship. The war for people's minds has long been waged on the Internet. It is controlled by Western corporations, for whom the will of national governments is nothing.
And Russia simply cannot get its point across. No one is going to completely block Western services. The leadership understands that it is important for Russia to be integrated into the global community.
Plus, we need to develop our platforms to compete with American counterparts.
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