The Rosett Report » Aw Shucks, Why Not Let the UN Control the Internet?
By Claudia Rosett On November 24, 2012
Here it comes again — another United Nations-sponsored grab to control the Internet. Next month, Dec. 3-14, the UN’s International Telecommunications Union (ITU) is holding a conference [1] in Dubai, at which UN member states will meet to update the ITU treaty arrangements for international communications. The window will be open for everything from proposals for UN-regulated and administered fees to, as The Hill [2] reports, language from China and Iran, which, in an effort to share with the world at large their own domestic practices, “could lead to online censorship and government monitoring of Web traffic.”
For those of you who don’t spend hours poring over UN web sites, some quick background on the UN’s ITU. Based in Geneva, its current secretary-general [3]is Hamadoun Toure of Mali, whose credentials include a PhD from the University of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics of Moscow; honorary degrees from, among other places, the State University of Belarus and the National University of Moldova; plus membership in the Golden Order of the Honour of the International Telecommunication Academy of Moscow. The ITU’s deputy secretary-general [4], Zhao Houlin, is from China.
I’d include here a list of participants expected at the Dubai conference, except, in one those ominous foreshadowings to which the UN’s more troublesome gatherings are prone, the conference web site features its roster of “Announced Participants” as a restricted link [5], accessible only to those the ITU deems worthy. Apparently that does not include the great unwashed Internet-using public.
But hey, with the UN on the job, what could possibly go wrong?
Plenty, of course. The UN, in one way or another, has been eyeing the internet for years [6] as a potential font of cash and lever of control.
-go to link-
For those of you who don’t spend hours poring over UN web sites, some quick background on the UN’s ITU. Based in Geneva, its current secretary-general [3]is Hamadoun Toure of Mali, whose credentials include a PhD from the University of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics of Moscow; honorary degrees from, among other places, the State University of Belarus and the National University of Moldova; plus membership in the Golden Order of the Honour of the International Telecommunication Academy of Moscow. The ITU’s deputy secretary-general [4], Zhao Houlin, is from China.
I’d include here a list of participants expected at the Dubai conference, except, in one those ominous foreshadowings to which the UN’s more troublesome gatherings are prone, the conference web site features its roster of “Announced Participants” as a restricted link [5], accessible only to those the ITU deems worthy. Apparently that does not include the great unwashed Internet-using public.
But hey, with the UN on the job, what could possibly go wrong?
Plenty, of course. The UN, in one way or another, has been eyeing the internet for years [6] as a potential font of cash and lever of control.
-go to link-
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