I’m trying not to giggle at this. Really I am. The European Union is - wait for it - asking President Barack Obama to hand over control of the Internet to an international body. They think he’s going to do this and will see the sense of it. There’s a report here.

First let me say that I think the idea that a single country holds all of the aces as far as such an internationally-important resource is concerned sucks big time. Nobody needs to convince me that we would all be better off if America had a significant say in, rather than total control of, the Internet. This is because I am wise, balanced, sensible, oh yes, and not American.

President Obama, on the other hand, is indeed American. He is, as of November last year, one of the most important Americans on the planet. And his responsibility is to defend America’s interests wherever he goes. That part of his job seems to have been forgotten by a great many of his supporters in the international press and it’s unfortunate. It could make a lot of the decisions he’s bound to take look quite jingoistic as a result - not to the same extent as those of his predecessor but trust me, he’s going to start doing things that are very pro-America soon. He’s obliged to. It’s his responsibility.

So when I see a story entitled ‘Europe tells Obama to...’ well, anything, I start to get a bit giggly. The President will not and should not do anything contrary to his country’s interests, and handing over control of the Internet without some sort of good reason or evidence of payback certainly counts. I’d be pleased to be proven wrong, in principle the Internet is too big to be the property of any individual territory - but it’s America’s playground. Why should they give it up?

Tags: internet, internet management, social media, social network, twitter, barack Obama, president