The extent to which nation states have attempted to govern and are continually attempting to govern the internet until today with specific reference to the United States of America, Malaysia and Iraq

• Main Author: Daud, Mahyuddin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Malayan Law Journal 2010
• Subjects: KZ Law of Nations
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/7283/1/The_extent_to_which_nation.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/7283/; http://www.lexisnexis.com/ap/auth/

The internet has become a significant need at present days. From the day the internet was introduced until now, there have been efforts from governments all around the world to govern the internet. A working group established after a United Nations initiated World Summit on the Information Society ('WSIS') proposed the following definition of internet governance as part of its June 2005 report: Internet governance is the development and application by Governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the Internet. The definition above is however unsettled because the definition of internet governance has been contested by differing groups across the political and ideological lines. As we will see in the upcoming discussion, in the early days of the introduction of the internet, nation-states did not bother to govern the internet. Some states enacted laws to show their intention on not wanting to govern the internet. 1 As such, the purpose of this paper is to discuss the extent of what nation-states have done and continue to do in order to govern the internet.