"We can't let the internet become the wild, wild West", Obama says to Putin.
While maintaining the wide open architecture which makes surveillance (and hence all the other problems) possible.
The reason Russia can assault the US election system is the same one that allows Obama to spy on ISIS and Al Qaeda. Weak device security.
He may confront Putin with his death stare. But that is the stare of a person who wants to have his cake and to eat it too.
The internet is the wild West because the President defines it that way. And this has effects, both benefits and harms.
One harm is the cost to Democracy of insecure voting systems. Another is Chinese theft of IP. And so on.
There are alternative choices. You can devise a more secure system. Or one based on assured identities. But these come at the expense of other things some people want.
So we have the wild West. For now.
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