Who owns the internet? Perhaps the people do as they are the ones generating the content. Perhaps it’s the government of various countries as they have the power to regulate what is able to be published. Countries are adopting different approaches of regulating the internet depending upon their societal and cultural values (Lawrence, Culjak, & Lawrence, 2003). The United States has the most sophisticated internet regulations. The laws are vague which allows loopholes and debates to ensue about what is actually allowed on the internet. France is thinking about implementing manual monitoring of the internet. If they do this, they would join other countries in what is known as the Communist bloc.
Singapore utilizes a blacklist that maintains a list of sites that citizens are not allowed to access. There are about 100 sites, mostly pornographic, that are on the list. Singapore Broadcasting Authority regulates the blacklist. Some classes of content are automatically authorized as long as established practices are followed. At one point China went as far as requiring Internet users to register with the police. Germany has a new, unique law that outlines the legal liabilities of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) when illegal material passes through them (Ang, 2015). The variance in Internet laws across different countries demonstrate the difference in e-commerce content and operations that need to be personalized to each country’s regulations.