Text on Internet governance watered down

AP via NOLA ^ | 11/15/2005

[ncountylee]

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Negotiators seeking to avert a U.S.-EU showdown at this week's U.N. summit on the information society watered down language on the Internet's governance in talks Tuesday.

U.S. officials considered the vague language a signal that world leaders would ultimately agree to leaving the U.S. Commerce Department ultimately in charge of the Internet's addressing system.

"We're waiting until they pass something we can accept," said U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce Michael Gallagher.

Diplomats are eager to reach agreement before Wednesday's start of the World Summit on the Information Society, which is scheduled to last through Friday.

The summit was originally conceived to address the digital divide — the gap between information haves and have-nots — by raising both consciousness and funds for projects.

Instead, it has centered largely around Internet governance: oversight of the main computers that control traffic on the Internet by acting as its master directories so Web browsers and e-mail programs can find other computers.

That job is handled by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, a quasi-independent group that ultimately answers to the U.S. government.

Since the latest round of talks began Sunday, the specific wording of the summit's draft declaration has evolved from "international management of the Internet," written by Pakistan, to far less specific language.

[Uncledave]

Hey Kofi, go build your own internet if you want one.

[ncountylee]

Tunis, November 15, 2005) - As the World Summit on the Information Society opens today in Tunis, Tunisia continues to jail individuals for expressing their opinions on the Internet and suppress Web sites critical of the government, Human Rights Watch said in a comprehensive new report on the repression of Internet users in the Middle East and North Africa. The 144-page report, "False Freedom: Online Censorship in the Middle East and North Africa," documents online censorship and cases in which Internet users have been detained for their online activities in countries across the region, including Tunisia, Iran, Syria and Egypt. These attempts to control the flow of information online contradict governments' national and international legal commitments to freedom of opinion and expression and the summit's own Declaration of Principles.

Reuters

[Pukin Dog]

In other words, they don't want their asses handed to them, so they wont ask for what they really want. Then, they can go home and say they made 'progress'. It just lets them keep the argument going.

[Doogle]

watered down...translation: disguised


Doogle

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

FWIW, according to an article in our local paper this morning, Canada is supporting continuing U.S. control over the Internet. The problem with U.N. control is that countries like China and Cuba would push for censorship.

[Waverunner]

The support of Canada was largely due to the massive output of data by Minister Terrance of cultural affairs and Minister Phillip of the gas trust who explained the ramifications of UN control of the internet in no uncertain terms.

[jordan8]

China and Cuba would push for censorship

So would Canada.