Who Controls The Internet? This Secret Has Been Revealed
In today's digital age, the internet has become an integral part of our lives. It serves as a platform for communication, information sharing, and global connectivity. However, behind the scenes of this vast network lies an intriguing question - who exactly controls the internet? Is it a few powerful individuals, governments, or corporate entities?
Join us as we embark on a journey to unravel the intricate web of power dynamics and explore who truly holds the reins of control over the internet, ultimately shaping the way we experience and navigate the online world.
Who Controls The Internet
๐ป Topic of Contents:
- Introduction
- Who operates the internet worldwide?
- Who is providing the space to create the website?
- What is ICANN?
- Does ICANN own the Internet?
- How is the Internet connected around the world?
- What is a DNS and how does it work?
- Who controls the internet?
- Final Thoughts
Who operates the internet worldwide?
Maybe we could think that the internet provider companies like Jio, Airtel, and BSNL control the internet. But this isn't true because if one company stops providing it still there are other companies present.
Then, you had thought maybe our government controls it but that isn't true either at most. Government can remove 2-3 or more posts maybe like Facebook, Twitter, or other social sites posts or block websites but they can be bypassed easily.
This does not amount to control over the internet worldwide. For example; China keeps its citizens blocked off completely from certain websites like Google, YouTube and Facebook are permanently blocked there but they can't block the internet.
Then, maybe we could think that companies like Google, Facebook, and YouTube control the internet because they have the largest amount of data. But that isn't true either because we can build a website of our own or these companies would not be able to interfere in it.
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Who is providing the space to create the website?
I think it's very essential to understand before know, where it has operated from, and how the internet works. Here we take an example of my website that is "www.milliondollarknowledge.com," this is a URL/link of "milliondollarknowledge". Here it is called a domain name and the ".com" is called the top-level domain. If we want to build our website, then we will have to buy our domain name.
Some websites sell domain names as their job. For example, we need to go on GoDaddy.com if we wish to buy a domain name for our website. There must be someone who gives assent to GoDaddy to sell domain names and if there's no one. Then GoDaddy has become the boss of the internet in a way that is it would be the one to sell domain names as well as decide who can own which website but this isn't so.
What is ICANN?
Internet Corporation For Assigned Names And Numbers - ICANN is a nonprofit organization based in Los Angeles. We could say that this is the top-level authority regarding the internet. It has the power to authorize websites like GoDaddy.com to sell domain names.
This is the authority that decides upon which websites can sell domain names. ICANN is the top-level authority that decides upon which domain names can exist. There could be .com, .in, .info, .gov, .me, .online, .io, and many more. All of these things are decided by ICANN.
For example, we may make a website with .gov in its name we may build domain names with .com in it although it is a nonprofit organization; it sells top-level domain names to the rest of the companies.
By bidding the companies that it sells to are called "registries". We can go on the website of ICANN and see which companies have bought the different top-level domains. For example; .aaa has been bought by American Automobile Association. Below the registries are the registrars. Companies like GoDaddy.com can sell both top-level domains as well as domain names to the people.
Does ICANN own the Internet?
This cannot be correct to say that ICANN is the god of the internet because the internet is a much-decentralized network that we could consider to be akin to a net.
All the mobile phones and computers that are connected to the internet are making up it; we could call it a "server". Our mobiles phones and computers are data centers and servers that are connected through wires.
Huge underwater cables have been laid worldwide across the continents that connect the computers worldwide to one another which make up the internet.
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How is the Internet connected around the world?
Mobile phones operate through mobile towers and (offer) 4g, 5g, or more which do not have an extremely wide range. Our mobile phones have the 4g/5g signal only when we are close to the mobile towers. But if we move a little further away, then the signals on our phone won't show up.
So, the towers of the mobile phones are connected to wires and they are eventually connected to those wires that are connected to the wires connected worldwide. We could say that the company that has laid down these wires holds a huge amount of significant power. Because it is supplying internet to many different places.
Secondly, the companies that lay down cables on land to help internet reach every household by connecting these wires to the main cable and connect our computers to the internet worldwide. They took hold a huge amount of significant power thus they are called internet service providers - ISPs.
These would be companies like Jio, Airtel, Idea, BSNL that supply the internet to our homes, they do hold significant power. Because these ISPs can block certain websites upon the direction of the government if the Government says. But they do not hold sufficient powers to control a lot of things, because we could use VPNs to overcome the blockages of the ISPs. Just like every mobile phone has a number from which we can call another mobile phone.
Every device that is connected to the internet has an IP address. Our computer, Smartphone, or be it any other server like a data center if it's connected to the internet. It will have an IP address on each website too; For example, If we make a phone call on a number then the call goes on another phone, which we can talk on similarly. When we type an IP address in our browser, it goes to another server after it we can view the website of that server on our computer.
What is a Domain Name Server (DNS) and how does it work?
The domain names are connected to the IP addresses. Humans cannot read the IP addresses because it is written in digits and numbers. So the domain name is a human-readable form of an IP address. When we type the domain name of a website in our browser then the thing that converts the domain name into the IP address is called Domain Name Server - DNS.
Sometimes the Internet Service Providers block certain websites from the DNS. When we type the domain name then it is not able to link it to the particular IP address. So, the DNS of the Internet Service Providers blocks us from reaching certain websites. For this, we can simply use a public DNS.
For example, the DNS of Google is 8.8.8.8 we can go to our mobile settings and change our DNS. Also, we can go to our computer settings and change our DNS to begin using the Google DNS, and then the blocked websites will get unblocked.
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The final answer on who controls the internet?
The correct answer to this would be that the Internet belongs to nobody and belongs to everybody. Let's here clear the reason because the internet runs only when it is a decentralized system and if we wish to buy a part of the internet. If we wish it to own then we can only do that when we build a website of our own.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, you may get the answer to most of the questions regarding the internet and its uses. The Internet is not a small thing that can control by just one company or an organization; it is a wider thing than anyone's imagination. "It can't be controlled by anyone, it runs by everyone."
It exists and functions through the collective efforts of numerous organizations, governments, individuals, and technological infrastructures.
It is the collective responsibility of all users to ensure a free, open, and secure Internet ecosystem for the benefit of humanity.
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