Why the UN wants to control the internet


It's not all anti-Americanism, or even mostly.
Carroll Andrew Morse puts it on the table at Tech Central Station.

The United Nations wants control of the internet. At its November 2005 meeting in Tunis, the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) will deliberate its "second phase" of creating a bureaucracy to manage internet governance. The WSIS is run by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a specialized agency of the UN. At the WSIS Preparatory Commission meeting held this past September in Geneva, the European Union joined with countries like China and Iran in rejecting the concept of not fixing what is not broken and decided that increased international supervision -- maybe even international control -- of the internet has become necessary. Why the United Nations should have a special right to manage "internet governance" is unclear. The claim -- like most UN claims -- is based on the idea that, because it has the form of a government, the UN can grant itself whatever government-like powers it desires. In this case, the UN has decided it has an information age power of eminent domain and can take over any communications network of international scope.

The work of the WSIS is frequently cast in terms of the United Nations trying to take control of the internet from the United States. But the goals specified by the WSIS Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) describe American control as only one aspect of the problem. The August report of the WGIG simultaneously decries "unilateral control by the United States government" and the fact that the highest levels of the internet "perform their functions today without a formal relationship with any authority". In other words, the real problem in the collective mind of the United Nations is not that the United States controls the internet, but that no one does. The shots at the United States are as much marketing as substance; it is easier to sell any program at the UN by adding generous doses of anti-Americanism.
 
I agree with him on both points. The U.N. isn't a government, despite it's structure. And the real "problem" is freedom on the internet, especailly the freedom of ideas. I've called the internet the last, best hope for freedom, and I honestly believe that is exactly what it is.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Fri - October 28, 2005 at 04:55 AM  Tag


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