Update, June 8 at 2:45 p.m.
The FBI is stepping up its effort to get broader authority to put “wiretaps” on the Internet to catch criminals and terrorists. But the move is drawing fire from civil liberties groups, technology firms and others who claim the effort could be counterproductive, by harming online security and imposing hefty costs on makers of hardware and software.
The idea that anyone is controlling the Internet runs contrary to common knowledge. The Web has a tradition of hosting free content with relatively little government or regulatory interference, and is today backed by a fervent army of supporters ready to defend a free and open platform. And in celebration of 20 years of a free World Wide Web, research laboratory CERN recently restored the world’s first website: http://info.cern.ch/.

