What exactly is the Internet? The Internet is not a single thing, but rather millions of computers that communicate independently of a central controller and dynamically change size depending on how many computers connect or disconnect. The origins of the Internet date back to American defense research in the late 1950s at DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), when scientists wanted to link radar stations together to defend against the threat of attack Russian nuclear power (Waldrop 78-79). As the prevalence of computers has increased, so has the Internet, transforming it from a tool used for government defense to a consumer resource outside of government jurisdiction. The ubiquity of the Internet, and now the Internet of Things, which involves connecting ordinary, everyday objects to the Internet to create a smarter world, raises the question of who has the power to regulate content and the information authorized to be disseminated. posted there. As the Internet expands to more users around the world, a growing number of countries are choosing to shut it down or heavily censor it, over the objections of many U.S. leaders. Edward Snowden's recent revelations have shed light on the pervasive surveillance of American citizens through the use of the Internet. The United States contradicts its intrinsic values ​​contained in the Bill of Rights by unanimously spying on its citizens via the Internet. This raises the controversial question of “who owns the Internet?” ”, because all the material that constitutes the Internet belongs to private interests. Because the Internet, as the most authentic form of democracy available, is a resource that everyone deserves the right to use, it should not be... middle of paper... we had never imagined before and is developing in new ways every day that we are still trying to understand. Works Cited Markoff, John. "Growing Internet Censorship Hinders News, Study Finds." NYTimes.com. New York Times, October 11, 2011. Web. December 1, 2013. Roberts, Hal, David Larochelle, Rob Faris and John Palfrey. et al. “Mapping Local Internet Control.” Computer Communications Workshop (Hyannis, CA, 2011), IEEE. 2011. Waldrop, Mitch. “DARPA and the Internet Revolution.” Darpa.mil. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, 2008. Web. November 17, 2013. Weaver, Nicholas. "Our government weaponized the Internet. Here's how they did it." Wired.com. Condé Nast Digital, November 13, 2013. Web. December 1, 2013. Zittrain, Jonathan and Benjamin Edelman. Internet filtering in China. Publication. Np: IEEE, 2003. Internet Filtering in China. Harvard.edu, March-April. 2003. Internet. December 1. 2013.