President Barack Obama made his most forceful comments about net neutrality this week, saying he doesn't want an internet where governments act as censors or companies squash competitors with predatory pricing. You "don't want to start getting a differentiation in how accessible the internet is to various users," Obama said, speaking at a White House forum for African business leaders. "You want to leave it open so that the next Google or the next Facebook can succeed."

Net neutrality advocates seized on the moment, pointing out that Obama's comments were at odds with the world they fear that the Federal Communications Commission will create with a new set of proposed internet rules. Indeed, the FCC must uphold Obama's stance, and at least in his public comments, FCC Chairman Wheeler says the agency will. But Obama's comments were about much more than just U.S. policy.

What's been lost in the debate over his statements to African leaders is a much more important issue: whether the internet's openness as a worldwide platform is under siege. The President also pointed out that there are countries "that feel comfortable with the idea of controlling and censoring Internet content in their home countries, and setting up rules and laws about what can or cannot be on the internet," and he believes this will inhibit the growth of these countries. "Closed societies that are not open to new ideas—eventually, they fall behind," he said. "Eventually, they miss out on the future because they’re so locked into trying to maintain the past."

>Their revenue is decreasing and they are concerned. Voice Over IP is illegal in many African countries

In many emerging markets, local telecommunications companies have seen the fees that they charge for completing U.S. long distance calls—known as termination fees—drop dramatically thanks to VOIP services such as Skype. And now a new generation of messaging apps such as WhatsApp are threatening SMS revenues too. That is scaring regional telecommunications companies, so they're cracking down on new technologies. "Their revenue is decreasing and they are concerned," says Dawit Bekele the Africa Regional Director with the Internet Society, the non-profit group that sets the internet's standards. "Voice Over IP is illegal in many African countries."

That's pretty much the same approach that U.S. telecommunication companies floated more than a decade ago, when they tried to charge extra fees for services such as VOIP, VPNs, even home routers. Consumer outrage here in the U.S. thwarted theses efforts, and they also pushed net neutrality into the public consciousness—so much so that Obama himself used it as a plank in his 2008 presidential campaign.

There's no doubt that, six years later, President Obama still wants to sound strong on net neutrality here in the U.S. But the larger point to be made is that the U.S. must stand firm in order to show other countries the way, to support the internet as a worldwide network. The internet must continue to be the open platform that we've come to know and love—not a walled garden—and it must remain global. "Right now people think that Africa is a very small market and they don't really matter," says Bekele, "but Africa is a rising continent." The internet, he explains, must be open in places like this or ceases to be as useful across the world. "If this principle starts to be eroded, it should be of concern to everyone."

Think about American communications services, for instance. They benefit—and ultimately users benefit—if they spread across the globe, and if the principle of openness is squashed in certain countries, they can't spread.

One of the surest ways the U.S. could help erode this principle is by letting the FCC blow it with its new regulations—due out later this year—and making it too hard for startups to compete with big companies. Over the past year, revelations about widespread NSA surveillance have made it harder for the U.S. to be a completely credible advocate for an free internet, but the rest of the world is still paying attention, says Nuala O’Connor the president of the Center for Democracy and Technology. "Whatever balance we strike in the States will be looked at closely everywhere else in the world."