Plan for UN to run internet 'will be shelved' (but now on international agenda)

Financial Times ^ | 11/10/03 | ft

[Mark Felton]

An attempt by developing countries to put management of the internet under United Nations auspices is likely to be shelved at next month's world information summit in Geneva - but the issue is now firmly on the international agenda, summit sources say.

It will be one of the main bones of contention this week as government negotiators and non-governmental organisations descend on Geneva for the final round of preparatory talks on the draft declaration and plan of action due to be endorsed by heads of state and government at the summit on December 10-12.

However, UN officials say they see no compromise emerging. They expect governments to decide instead to continue talks on internet governance with the aim of reaching accord by 2005, when the second stage of the two-part summit is due to take place in Tunisia.

"They're no longer going to try to agree on this," a UN official said last week.

Poorer nations such as Brazil, India, South Africa, China and Saudi Arabia, as well as some richer ones, are growing dissatisfied with the workings of California-based Icann (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the semi-private internet address regulator set up five years ago.

The critics argue that the internet is a public resource that should be managed by national governments and, at an international level, by an intergovernmental body such as the International Telecommunications Union, the UN agency that is organising the information summit.

However, the US and the European Commission are staunchly defending the Icann model, which is based on minimal regulation and commercial principles. Icann members are predominantly drawn from industrialised countries and the established internet community.

Defenders of the status quo say handing over power to governments could threaten the untrammelled flow of information and ideas that many see as the very essence of the borderless internet.

But these arguments appear to be losing force against the emergence of new challenges such as unwanted advertising ("spam"), privacy and security worries, hate speech and child pornography, which have convinced many governments of the need for international regulation and enforcement.

The question of internet governance, which erupted at a relatively late stage in the preparatory summit negotiations, is just one of many issues negotiators must try to resolve this week. Rich and poor countries are also at odds over creation of a "digital solidarity fund" that would finance investment to bridge the "digital divide" in access to information and communications technologies.

Other unresolved disputes concern the balance between intellectual property protection and access to information, the role of the media, and acceptable boundaries to freedom of expression.

[anniegetyourgun]

LOL!

[znix]

They want it so they can "tax" it. Think oil-for-food.

[commish]

What do these yahoos want ..a global civil war, because that is what will happen.

[So Cal Rocket]

Think oil-for-food.

URL-for-food.

[Robert A Cook PE]

So the Internet - bought and startup-funded STRICTLY by US dollars as a DOD initiative, and strongest point-of-view AGAINST the international socialist control, is going to be targetted (by the democrats! as soon as they get in power!) to UN thought police?

Sure, now some of the computer "connecting sites" are overseas - but this is a US-funded and inspired tool.

[Holly_P]

hate speech and child pornography

and by all means let the Phillipines be in charge of cleaning up kiddy porn>>>The child prostitute capital of the world.

[Libertina]

Excuse me, they want to run what? No way, at no time!

[Holly_P]

let the Phillipines be in charge<p. Or is it Thailand? Oh well you know what I mean.

[Libertina]

Don't forget Al Gore helped too ;)

[Leatherneck_MT]

The minute the UN starts running the Internet is the day my computer and all outside communications devices goes in the shitcan.

[znix]

URL-for-food.

:)

[montomike]

The UN can't even run to the bathroom without screwing up.

They gave us Rwanda, they gave us the Congo, they gave us Liberia...and they want to run the internet.

In the immortal words of Mr. Traficant...

BEAM ME UP, SCOTTY!

[Indy Pendance]

hahahahaha! Right, maybe Blixie boy could head it up.

[znix]

They'll want our GPS system next

[KantianBurke]

But not before stocking up on some of these puppies...

[numberonepal]

More of the "You got it and we want it" attitude. This is one fight we can't lose. The US dreamed it up, built it, and runs it. What are they gonna do, force us to turn over our server nodes to their control.

This issue is very very important to US business, and I believe it will never happen, but the fight is gonna be a tough one.

[Paladin2]

I agree. I'll start watching TV (ugh!)again
before I'll have my packets distributed by the UN
(It's bad enough that our gov't paws though the traffic).

[Principled]

URL-for-food.

Yo owe me a keyboard!

[Leatherneck_MT]

Already stocked :)