June 29, 2008 2:51PM # Should the Internet Be Nationalized? By [Jim Harper](https://www.cato.org/people/jim-harper) --- SHARE [Vint Cerf](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinton_Cerf) is the nominal “father of the Internet,” and currently a vice president and “Chief Internet Evangelist” at Google. His employer recently unveiled an “Internet for Everyone” public policy program, which I view [with skepticism](http://techliberation.com/2008/06/24/well-not-actually-for-everyone/). (Julian Sanchez [nailed](http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080624-internet-for-everyone-campaign-aims-to-bridge-digital-divide.html) the free-lunchism of “Internet for Everyone,” saying, “All this may have a whiff of ‘and a pony’ about it.”) At the same conference where the Google campaign was introduced, Cerf made a casual comment suggesting that it might be better if the Internet were nationalized. This is a bad idea, and even the blogger who wrote up Cerf’s comment [said so](http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/25/vint-cerf-wonders-if-we-need-to-nationalize-the-internet/). I posted about it at [TechLiberationFront](http://techliberation.com/2008/06/27/cerf-nationalize-the-internet/), where Cerf has been good enough to comment. I don’t think policies based on his predisposition in favor of government ownership and control would result in good outcomes. Same goes for Google’s public policy program to the extent it shares those premises. ##### Related Tags [Technology and Privacy](https://www.cato.org/technology-privacy) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).