Get Ready for the Internet Robber Barons -- If the United Nations ends up in charge, it would have a chokehold on the global economy -- By Karl Borden, The Wall Street Journal

(Corbis image)

Do you remember the original robber barons? No, they were not the great American industrialists/philanthropists of the late 19th century—men who were unfairly tagged with the moniker. I mean the originals: the German barons of the 13th century who controlled the Rhine River, which was the primary channel of commerce and communications for central Europe. Their castles overlooked the river, and they exacted tribute from every passing ship.

The barons ignored customary "just" tolls, charged whatever the commerce would bear, exacted payment "in kind" from cargoes, and exercised power by controlling strategic territory. These Raubritter provided no real service other than the extortion implicit in allowing safe passage past their own weapons.

The world may see history repeat itself with the Internet, and the unintended consequences are likely to be profound. The United Nations has long craved the power to tax, and the Obama administration's decision to give up U.S. oversight of the domain-name system and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann, may end up giving the U.N. that power.

As far back as 2001, a U.N. report, "Financing the Global Sharing Economy," proposed that the U.N. be given the authority to levy a tax on "speculative currency transactions" with a projected revenue stream north of $150 billion. Should the U.N. get control of the Internet and the global commerce it carries, that figure will be chump change.

There are political and strategic issues—involving security, privacy and censorship—associated with international control of the Internet. Should the U.N. end up in charge, it would have a chokehold on the global economy and a vast stream of revenue that would make it even more unaccountable than it already is.

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