Brazil’s proposal to regulate Internet is scary

President Dilma Rousseff

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s angry denunciation of US electronic spying at the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week was applauded by most in the room, but her proposal to regulate the Internet should make all of us very nervous.

During her opening speech at the 68th UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Rousseff referred to the recent leaks by former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden showing that the US government had intercepted electronic communications from top Brazilian officials, including herself, and from Brazil’s state-controlled oil company, Petrobras.

“The revelations of activities of a global network of electronic espionage have caused indignation and repudiation in