The UN Wants the Internet



Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor
of the World Wide Web
(not Al Gore!) tweeted
at the 2012 Summer Olympics,
"This is for everyone."

Authoritarian governments aspire to control the net

Do you want bureaucrats to be able to read every text, image, tune, spreadsheet, or whatever you send or receive? Do you want your business communications snooped on by unknown entities?

The open Internet, available to people around the world without the permission of any government, was a great liberation. But, authoritarian governments this month attempted to make this intrusion internationally legitimate.

Under a resolution made on December 4, 2012 at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) conference in Dubai, a majority of countries that subject their population to internet censorship and suppress publishing approved a treaty giving governments new powers to close off access to the Internet in their countries.

The motion was withdrawn on December 12. In another power grab, a motion by Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Sudan to give equal rights to domain naming and numbers to all countries was shelved.

In a rebuff to the proposal, the Internet Society stated that it’s “extremely important that this treaty not extend to content, or implicitly or explicitly undermine the principles that have made the Internet so beneficial.”

Vint Cerf,
"Father the Internet,"
was instrumental in the
funding and formation of
ICANN from the start.

Vint Cerf, the computer scientist who co-designed some of the Internet’s core underlying protocols, said: “The free and open net is under threat.”

Who Are These ITU People?

From 1995 through December 1949, the International Telecommunications Union (originally the “T” stood for Telegraph) was directed by a Swiss citizen.

Since 1950, the ITU has been a specialized United Nations agency for information and communications technologies, governed by a “Secretary-General” with a nominal term of four years.

Dr. Hamadoun I. Touré, Secretary-General of the ITU since 2007, was re-elected for a second four-year term in 2010.

A national of Mali, Dr Touré holds a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technical Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications of Leningrad, and a PhD from the University of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics of Moscow.

It is reported that he had a pre-Dubai meeting with Russian president Putin, who “reminded” him of Russia’s involvement in the formation of the ITU (even though it had none).

As the Internet has grown, it has acquired enemies. Just as the fax became a liberating tool at the time of Tiananmen Square, the Internet became one during the recent uprisings in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.

Much of the discussion at the conference concerned the “openness” of the Internet and the aspiration of many governments to be able to control it. Said Terry Kramer, the U.S. ambassador to WCIT:

“There have been proposals that have suggested that the ITU should enter the Internet governance business. There have been active recommendations that there be an invasive approach of governments in managing the internet, in managing the content that goes via the internet, what people are looking at, what they’re saying. These fundamentally violate everything that we believe in in terms of democracy and opportunities for individuals, and we’re going to vigorously oppose any proposals of that nature.”

It’s Scary!

Google warned the event threatened the "open Internet", while the EU said the current system worked, adding: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

But the agency said action was needed to ensure investment in infrastructure to help more people access the net.

"The brutal truth is that the Internet remains largely [the] rich world's privilege," said Dr. Touré, ahead of the meeting.

"ITU wants to change that."

Sources:
1. L. Gordon Crovitz, "America's First Big Digital Defeat," The Wall Street Journal, December 17, 2012
2. Peter H. Salus, "The UN and Your Business: Why ITU Dubai Loss is Your Gain," Forbes, December 14, 2012
3. Leo Kelion, "Un Internet Regulation Treaty Talks Begin in Dubai," BBC News, December 2, 2012