Is the internet an uncontrollable vortex?

Can we really regulate an entity that hosts as much information as the internet does? Perhaps this is a question more so in the realm of ethics then it is technical. Because even if we should, is it feasible?

Ethics? Maybe not.

Firstly, ethics, what are principles that dictate how we should coordinate something like the internet. There are going to be many schools of thought that can be argued for how we drive our use of the internet. Whether that's a utilitarianism view for example, or perhaps a universal view, I don't think it matters. Hear me out.

There are many things that exists on the internet and will continue to exist because they feed the system. Inherently and arguably, they are wrong, things like pornography, piracy and so on. There's not many conversations on whether or not they should exist or be erased. Perhaps because it would be a task quite impossible. That doesn't mean ethics don't matter, because they do. We can still strive for regulatory protocols on things of such nature. The problem lies within how much ethics can really effect the internet. 

Your essentially dropping a needle in a haystack, I mean were talking 5.85 billion pages on the internet as of June 2019. We can discuss ethics all day but how much we can actually influence the internet is a different monster. The world isn't perfect and so isn't the internet. At the end of the day we all have different ethics, moral and values that drive our decision making. The extent of our ethics and its influence perhaps stops with our own actions, because influencing the internet to fully suit our ethics is an impossible task. And I haven't even mentioned the fact that we all have different ethics. 

Ethics exist in the eye of the beholder. Whilst you may not approve of something on the internet...someone else may be equipped to justify it. 

How much control do we have?

Why the internet is too hard to regulate.

Firstly the internet has evolved evolved without central control from a point in 1969 when a network was created without a single point of failure by the Pentagon. It was created for safety reasons but since then the internets growth has led it to be decentralized. Now it has no peak bodies to govern groups which makes regulation virtually impossible because of the mass amounts of networks. Its simply a non-hierarchical system. Its virtually impossible for governments to control information and its spread on the internet because of its development. Information spreads on the internet quite rapidly also and takes alternative routes within the network. 

Whilst we can have bodies to regulate certain technicalities of the internet, we can't have a single body that can take control of its content and regulation on a grand scale. 

Challenges with the nature of the internet 

The nature of the internet itself poses challenges with enforcing regulations. Physical location is irrelevant granted you can change it quite simply. It is a common practice for users to change their location to access pages or files that are not allowed in their real location. Furthermore, hypertext links can commonly have problems or not reveal where the location of where a document is being viewed. 

Laws also differ across states and countries which makes legalities difficult to assess when material is legal in one state but illegal in another. Another grey area is anonymity and the difficulties with tracing who sends messages over the internet. It is difficult to prove who sends messages on internet with messages can be sent anonymously or impersonated. Its hard to enforce laws or regulations when anonymity can result in the inability to trace sources. 

Because of this anonymity, it is also difficult to regulate material that is subject for adults but not minors. Many sites do attempt to verify your identity but it is very easy to bypass because theirs only so much information they can obtain from you legally. 

Copyright

In all fairness, copyright isn't entirely an uncontrollable mess, and successful law suits are filled all the time. In Australia atleast, their is balanced copyright protection with provisions to help fair access to information for all users of copyright material. Fair use is followed carefully on the internet for the most part people are respected of their intellectual property. With all this said though, copyrighting material and keeping it so is a hard task in itself. Leaks are constant and the increasing set of networks only raises the possibility of copyright being dismissed in certain scenarios. 

Anyways, these are just some of the things that pop up when it comes to regulating the internet. Are there any I should perhaps mention with more detail? Are there other factors more important than the ones I've mentioned? let me know.