The Solution

A good solution seeks to understand and satisfy the key needs of those adversely affected and harmed by a problem.

This summary is our best discernment of what the American public needs after 26 years of U.S. Internet policy of minimal U.S. Government accountability for harmful and criminal conduct online.

The American public needs:

1. Good government “to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
2. “We the People” to expect and require good government “of the people, by the people, for the people.”
3. U.S. policymakers to restore fidelity to the U.S. Constitution’s goals: “…to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…”
4. Government to affirm and encourage the essential governing and societal Ethic of Reciprocity/The Golden Rule to promote humanity, good will, respect, responsibility, peace, order, unity, and civility.
5. Government authority to encourage legal, good, and rightful conduct, and deter illegal, evil, and wrongful conduct.
6. Restoration of reason in public policy that humans’ primary need is self-preservation, i.e., protections from harm.
7. Up-to-date U.S. policy to promote protection of people and America from relentless foreign cyberattack, cyber-ransom, cyberespionage, and cybercrime that one alone cannot protect against.
8. Restoration of U.S. sovereignty, national security, public safety, rule-of-law, law and order, due process, and a civil duty of care, online.
9. Restoration of one’s rights online: Constitutional, human, individual, legal, property, consent, and due process.
10. Restoration of one’s rightful control of one’s humanity, dignity, destiny, security, privacy, and reputation online.

RUI’s universal solution becomes simple in simplifying the universal problem.

The Accountable What: The original 1986-1996 Internet was subject to Government accountability. In 1996-1997 the U.S. legislative, executive, and judicial branches effectively made and mutually-reinforced, bipartisan, U.S. policy that the Internet, ecommerce, and online speech generally not be subject to Government accountability going forward. Given the evidence that universal Internet unaccountability logically and universally proliferates harms of people online, the logical simple solution is to universally restore Government accountability over the U.S. Internet.

The Constitutional How: The U.S. Constitution is America’s universal Government authority, source, and standard for all Government accountabilities. Since U.S. Internet policies universally minimize Government accountabilities empowered by the U.S. Constitution, this universal problem has a logical, simple, universal solution, restoring Internet accountability by fully restoring U.S. Constitutional authority over the U.S. Internet.

The Defensible Why: RUI’s hypothesis is that America’s Internet unaccountability on autopilot is primarily a failure of humanity, morals, and ethics, because five Administrations thirteen Congresses and sixteen Supreme Court Justices together, have neglected to protect people from harms and crimes online since 1997.

Reason dictates the best solution to this indefensible problem is the most defensible solution – fully restore U.S. Constitutional authority over the U.S. Internet. It is the only reasonable, universal, and time tested, Internet accountability solution that most can understand and support with intended consequences.

It is the most defensible because: First, the original 1986-1996 Internet was subject to U.S. Constitutional accountability. Second, in America all government elected officials, employees, law enforcement, armed forces, all lawyers, and all new U.S. citizens must swear an oath “to support and defend the U.S. Constitution.” Third, it has been America’s supreme law for 234 years. Fourth, it is the world’s first single document constitution and the longest lived. And finally, now most nations have a constitution influenced by the U.S. Constitution.  

The Legitimate Who: Restoring U.S. Constitutional authority over the U.S. Internet would universally restore the rightful purpose and power of government back to “We the People,” the Constitution’s emphasized” first three words.

President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address encapsulated the import of ‘We the People’ in the Constitution with his historic characterization of America’s government as: “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”  

The American people’s strong concerns about Internet unaccountability and the lack of solutions to date indicate ‘the people’ can become the critical mass public accountability needed for government and corporations to finally protect people from online harms.

The evidence below shows the American public is primed to be a public accountability solution here because:

A mindful many of Americans have strong concerns about Internet unaccountability harms.

Americans worry ~twice as much about being victims of cybercrimes than other crimes per Gallup.

A majority of Americans are victims of cyberbullying/online harassment, cybercrime, and/or cyberattacks.

RUI’s public accountability/solution hypothesis here is that the American public (and many in government) are aware much is amiss and harmful with Wild West Internet policy but are reluctant to criticize it publicly for fear others do not have the same concerns. The famous children’s fable, “The Emperor has no clothes,” teaches that one speaking the truth publicly is often voicing what others silently think too. Psychologists call this behavioral paradox ‘pluralistic ignorance.’

What the American people don’t know yet but will eventually learn from RUI research, evidence, education, and broad Internet Accountability Coalition efforts over time, is that most Americans generally agree that there is a serious, and publicly-indefensible, Internet unaccountability problem that has a popular, defensible, solution – fully restoring U.S. Constitutional authority over the U.S. Internet. 

The inspiration and model for RUI’s public accountability solution of deploying research, education, and a coalition, to address and resolve a public moral/ethical problem with clear pluralistic ignorance at work, is MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

MADD’s research, public education and coalitions over time, successfully transformed public and government attitudes and priorities in America to side with the victims of, and no longer the perpetrators of, the indefensible and then out-of-control crime of drunk driving mayhem. That ensured much more government vigilance and public accountability for this unnecessary, preventable crime.   

The mindful many of Americans documented below could become the critical mass solution of public accountability, to Internet unaccountability going forward.

1. 1. Nine in ten Americans are concerned about cybercrime, and data privacy and social media harms.
   2. Eight in ten Americans are concerned about Big Tech’s unchecked power and influence.
   3. Seven in ten Americans, a Mindful Many, support government Internet accountability policies.