Who Controls the Internet?

The Internet is so commonplace in our lives that few bother to ask questions about the details.  However, the information is out there.  Unless we take the initiative to inform ourselves, we will remain ignorant to important things like the fact that a single IP address, like 68.178.232.99, can house two million domain names: in other words, 2% of all domain names on the Internet!  This is an astounding figure. 

In addition to domains being highly concentrated within certain IP addresses, they are highly concentrated amongst certain owners as well.  For example, a study has revealed a list of the Internet’s top 100 domain-hosting companies with Arizona’s GoDaddy Ltd. at the very top, hosting 20 or so million domains.  Number two, a company in Germany called PlusLine Systemhas GmbH, only has two million.  Again, ownership is highly concentrated.  The same can be said for zones.  Whereas  86 million domains are .coms, only 13 million are .nets, 8 million are .orgs, and 5.4 million are .infos.  All the remaining zones consist of a small fraction of these numbers of domains.  Networks and their domain-distribution show the same concentration effect; the second-ranking network (64.X.X.X) has fewer than a third of the 15 million domains that make up the class ‘A’ network (68.X.X.X). 

However, my research into the languages used by domains raised another issue.  I found that a staggering 71.5% of all websites are in English.  After websites in Chinese websites, which rank at 6.9%, Spanish, French and Japanese websites all rank in at less than 4% each.  These figures do not accurately reflect the populations that speak these respective languages.  Perhaps it is time to start asking important questions.  For whom is the Internet?  To whom does it belong?  Are we protecting it properly?  Do we have reason to?