http://phys.org/news/2012-05-internet.html
As a followup to a previous story about congressional hearings regarding a proposal to turn over control of the internet to the United Nations International Telecommunications Union, we are happy to report that extensive public pressure has ensured that there remains a bipartisan consensus against allowing this transfer of power over the Internet.
“There’s a strong, bipartisan consensus within the (US) administration and Congress that we must resist efforts from some countries to impose a top-down governance of the Internet,” Representative Henry Waxman told the hearing.
Congresswoman Doris Matsui added that “any international authority over the Internet is troublesome, particularly if that effort is being led by countries where censorship is the norm.”
A top State Department official, in prepared remarks, reaffirmed the opposition of the Obama administration to UN governance of the Internet.
“In all bilateral encounters and multilateral meetings, the United States consistently opposes the extension of intergovernmental controls over the Internet,” said Philip Verveer, deputy assistant secretary of state and coordinator for IT policy, saying this would lead to “very bad outcomes.”
“It inevitably would diminish the dynamism of the Internet,” he said.
Verveer told lawmakers that UN control would possibly “aid in censorship and repression” in some countries.
“Father of the Internet”, Google’s Vint Cerf, said Thursday that proposals to bring the Internet under United Nations’ control “holds profound — and I believe potentially hazardous — implications for the future of the Internet and all of its users”.
The ITU is scheduled to have their annual meeting in December where Russia, China, and other repressive countries will continue to press for this transfer “on behalf of developing countries”.
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In 2005 the UN wanted to take it over to “stop spam”.
http://news.cnet.com/The-U.N.-thinks-about-tomorrows-cyberspace/2008-1028_3-5643972.html?tag=nefd.lede
Now it’s for “developing countries”, I don’t doubt “just for the Hell of it” is on the list right after ” to stop climate change”.
techgm says:
June 1, 2012 at 9:10 am
Doesn’t Cerf look (eerily) like “The Architect” from “The Matrix Reloaded”? Too bad the ITU was handed over to the UN to begin with. Perhaps in those heady, post-WWII days of 1947, no one realized what a bureaucratic, anti-liberty monster the UN would become
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Don’t bet on it.
You might start with researching the Rockefellers. http://www.amazon.com/David-Rockefeller-Memoirs/dp/product-description/0679405887
I had the distinct honor of meeting Cerf over 20 yrs ago. I was stunned when I saw this photo. He hasn’t changed one iota. He had just returned from Japan. I was sitting with my boss in a hotel restuarant near our office. She had helped him develop – in what way I’m not sure – what became email. It was just the three of us and he sat down – and yanked out his hearing aids! He was the definition of courtly gentleman. To be honest, I’m shocked he’s still alive.
Again, the ITU is an organization were the major telcos call the shots – the ITU is most definitly not “the UN”. It is the same telcos that wanted to get rid of net neutrality that are now using their organization ITU to try it again.
“Russia, China, and other repressive countries will continue to press for this transfer ‘on behalf of developing countries.’”
You don’t like ours? Develop your own goddam internet then.
We’ll wait….
a internet controlled by government is worse than a country controlled by monarchs and dictators