Science & Tech Quote by John Doolittle

Control is sold here as stewardship, and that sleight of hand is the point. John Doolittle’s claim wraps a geopolitical demand in the warm language of maintenance: the Internet will “remain” “thriving” only if it stays “under the control of the United States.” The sentence is built like a protective charm. “Only way” shuts down alternatives before they can be considered. “Continue” and “remain” imply a fragile ecosystem that might collapse without the same caretaker. By the time we arrive at “control,” it feels like a necessary utility rather than what it is: power.

The subtext is a familiar Washington equation: American dominance equals global stability. That’s not merely patriotic framing; it’s strategic messaging aimed at domestic audiences who fear chaos (cybercrime, censorship, “balkanization”) and at international bodies flirting with a more multilateral governance model. Doolittle isn’t arguing about protocols or engineering so much as jurisdiction: who gets to set rules, apply pressure, and reap economic and intelligence advantages from the network’s chokepoints.

Context matters because the Internet’s early architecture and oversight were deeply U.S.-centric, with key institutions, companies, and infrastructure clustered in American legal reach. As other nations pushed for “internationalizing” internet governance, U.S. politicians often cast those efforts as a gateway to authoritarian control. The rhetorical trick is that “U.S. control” is presented as neutral freedom, while everyone else’s is presented as tyranny. It’s a clean moral contrast that conveniently ignores how control can be exercised through surveillance, sanctions, standards-setting, and corporate leverage - all without ever looking like a censor’s stamp.