Julius Caesar conquered Gaul with Roman legions, but the U.S. is doing it with Mickey Mouse, and the Internet. The Internet started in the U.S., and that's still where it is most dominant. Almost two thirds of the world's Web traffic comes from the U.S. Japan is second, with 7 percent, followed by Germany with 5 percent. Spanish language Web sites, one of the fastest growing Internet segments, make up less than 2 percent. Even though the number of Web users from outside the U.S. is expected to grow faster than that of Americans, most of what you find on the Web is American.
Some countries find that threatening.
I think that the people like McDonald's hamburgers and they also like the Internet, so it's kind of the government trying to control what people do. At the United Nations, delegates follow the debate by listening to translators. That may stop the U.N. from turning into a Tower of Babel, but you often miss the subtleties of a language. Web-based tools, like Transparent Language or Altavista's Babelfish, help you get the gist of a Web site in another language. But not everyone likes that idea.