“Who actually rules the Internet?”

Have you ever thought about who runs the internet? Who controls the internet worldwide?

Maybe you 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, there are other companies present.

Then, you’d think maybe our government controls it, but that isn’t true either. At most, the government can remove 2-3 facebook posts or block websites but they can be bypassed easily And this does not amount to control over the internet worldwide.

Then, maybe you could think that companies like Google, Facebook and Youtube control it because they have the largest amount of data.

But that isn’t true either because you can build a website of your own and these companies would not be able to interfere in it.

So the question is, when you are building a website of your own, who is providing you the space to create the website on the internet? Is there a website that can tell you which website you can build and which website you cannot?
Because the internet is an important tool in maintaining freedom and democracy worldwide countries like China keep their citizens blocked off completely from certain websites.

Some websites like Google, Youtube and Facebook are permanently blocked there. Because the Chinese government wants to brainwash its citizens in a particular way. Therefore, I think its essential to understand how the internet works and what it is.

Understanding the working of Internet:

Lets us take an example to understand in an easy way. www.yourtechnology.com This is a URL/link. “yourtechnology” here, is called a domain name and the”.com” is called the top level domain. If you want to build your own website, then you will have to buy your domain name.

There are some websites that sell domain names as their job. For example, GoDaddy.

You need to go on GoDaddy.com if you wish to buy a domain name for your website. For example, I had to buy yourtechnology.com, so I went to GoDaddy.com to buy it.

Now the question is, who gave GoDaddy the authority to sell domain names? Who is GoDaddy to sell domain names? 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 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, there is another authority above it.

The name of this authority is Internet Corporation For Assigned Names And Numbers- ICANN. This is a non profit organization based in Los Angeles.

You could say that this is the top level authority regarding the internet. It has the power to authorize websites like GoDaddy to sell domain names.

This is the authority that decides upon which websites can sell domain names This is the top level authority that decides upon which domain names can actually exist There could be .com, .in, .info or .gov. All of this is decided by ICANN (for example), we may make a website with .gov in its name. We may build domain names within it.

Although it is a non profit organization, it sells top level domain names to the rest of the companies by bidding.

The companies that it sells to are called “registries”. You can go on the website of ICANN and see which companies have bought the different top level domains .Companies like GoDaddy.com that can sell both top level domains as well as domain names to the people.

So, is ICANN the God of internet? This cannot be said because the internet is a very decentralized network. You could consider it to be akin(similar) to a net.

All the mobile phones and computers that are connected to the internet, make up the internet. You could call it a “server”.

Your mobiles phones and computers are data centers and servers that are connected to each other 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.

Now, you could ask that my mobile phone isn’t connected with any cable, then how does the internet work on it? Mobile phones operate through mobile towers and (offer) 3g, 4g which do not have an extremely wide range.

Your mobile phones have the 3g/4g signal only when you are close to the mobile towers. But if you move a little further away, then the signals (on your phone) won’t show up. So the towers of the mobile phones are actually connected to wires And they are eventually connected to those wires that are connected to the wires connected worldwide.

Secondly, you could say that the companies that lay down cables on land to help internet reach every household by connecting these wires to the main cable and connect your computers to the internet worldwide.

They too hold a huge amount of significant power. They are called internet service providers- ISPs. These would be (companies like) Airtel, Jio, BSNL that supply internet to your homes. And yes, they do hold significant power because these ISPs can block certain websites upon the direction of the Government.

If the Government says so but they do not hold sufficient powers to control a lot of things. Because you could use VPNs to overcome the blockages of the the ISPs Just like every mobile phone has a number from which you can call another mobile phone.

Similarly, every device that is connected to the internet has an IP address. Be it your computer, your smartphone or be it any other server like a data center. If it is connected to the internet, it will have an IP address. Each website too, has an IP address For example, if you make a phone call on a number, then the call goes on another phone which you can talk on.

Similarly, when you type an IP address in your browser, it goes to another server and you are able to view the website of that server on your own computer. Now you could say that you type the domain name, not the IP address. The domain names are connected to the IP addresses.

Actually, 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 you type the domain name of a website in your 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 so that when you type the domain name, it is not able to link it to the particular IP address. So the DNS of the Internet Service Providers blocks you from reaching certain websites For this, you can simply use a public DNS.

For example, the DNS of Google is 8.8.8.8 You can go to your mobile settings and change your DNS. You can go to your computer settings and change your DNS to begin using the Google DNS. Then the blocked websites will get unblocked Obviously using the VPN is another way.

Conclusion:

So let us revert to our original question, who controls the Internet? Whom does it belong to? The correct answer to this would be that it belongs to nobody and belongs to everybody. Because the internet runs only when it is a decentralized system And if you wish to buy a part of the internet, if you wish to own it.

You can only do it when you build a website of your own. How can you build a website? Buy your own domain name then you’d need to buy a server where your website can be stored.

Now you could point out that I had stated that your mobile phones and your computers could also be servers. Yes, they could be but it does not have enough processing power and space to store an entire website Also, neither your computers nor your phones run 24/7. Only when it runs 24/7, will your website be available to the users 24/7 on the internet.

In short, the internet is a global network of networks, and it does not have a single entity or organization that controls it completely. However, there are various stakeholders and organizations that play significant roles in its governance, infrastructure, and policies.