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Updated Every four years, the United Nations' International Telecommunication Union (ITU) stages a Plenipotentiary Conference at which member states decide how the organization will steer the development of communications technologies. The event is usually only of interest to telco and policy wonks.But this year's event has become a geopolitical football – and possibly a turning point for internet governance – thanks to the two candidates running in an election for the position of ITU secretary-general.The US has put forward Doreen Bogdan-Martin for the gig. She's an ITU veteran with years of experience working with global telecoms regulators. She also believes...

United Nations International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Welcome to Day 1 of the World Wide Web under new—foreign—management. As quickly as you could say Barry Soetoro the Internet was all but officially stamped ‘Made in China’ at midnight last night. No notice of the dramatic change was made by the New York Times, Washington Post or any of the other mainstream media power brokers. But Andrea Zelinski of the Houston Chronicle did report at 7:20 p.m., Friday that a federal judge had rejected Attorney General Ken Paxton’s 11th-hour attempt to keep the internet address book under U.S. control:

The United Nations could take over control of the Internet on October 1, when the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) passes from U.S. administration to the control of a multilateral body, most likely the United Nations International Telecommunications Union (ITU). While the administration and its defenders have denied that the UN will have authority over ICANN, the Wall Street Journal‘s L. Gordon Crovitz points out that ICANN will need to be run by a state agency in order to retain its antitrust exemption, which makes it almost certainly that the UN will step in to take control.

Exposing the UN's International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Youtube:Should the United Nations be Given the Power to Control the Internet? Related Articles: UN to Seek Internet Kill Switch Next Month, Documents Show 15 November 2012 - The United Nations is drafting a plan to give a little-known UN agency control over the online world, including an Internet "kill switch."Secret UN Document Lays Out Plan to Seize Control of Internet16 November 2012 - A draft proposal of a document by the International Telecommunications Union lays out a plan for greater government control of the Internet.U.S. Reps. Introduce Resolution to Bar UN...

Free Speech: The U.N. plans to control the tool that tyrants fear most — technology that promotes free speech and intellectual freedom — by imposing a global tax in the name of fairness. Think of net neutrality on steroids. Elections have consequences, and one consequence of President Obama's re-election may be U.S. acquiescence to the administrative control of the Internet to the United Nations and journalist-jailing and Web-censoring regimes from Iran to Venezuela, complete with a global tax on its use. The U.N.'s International Telecommunications Union (ITU) is holding the World Conference on International Telecommunications in Dubai from Dec. 3...

The Barack Obama Administration has, since its inception, been moving the United States dramatically leftward, trying to (at the very least) make us a western European socialist entity. Ideologically, a full-on participant in – rather than a rational outlier of – the patently absurd United Nations (UN). Perhaps the greatest – and worst – example of President Obama’s UN-ing of America was his Federal Communications Commission (FCC)’s December 2010 illegal Network Neutrality Internet power grab. The Administration going to these unlawful lengths to commandeer control of the ‘Net makes it a little more difficult to persuade international autocrats and dictators...

The United Nations is considering whether to set up an inter-governmental working group to harmonize global efforts by policy makers to regulate the internet. Establishment of such a group has the backing of several countries, spearheaded by Brazil. At a meeting in New York on Wednesday, representatives from Brazil called for an international body made up of Government representatives that would attempt to create global standards for policing the internet - specifically in reaction to challenges such as WikiLeaks. The Brazilian delegate stressed, however, that this should not be seen as a call for a "takeover" of the internet. India,...

ALARM - Agreement in Tunis on a progressive evolution of Internet TUNIS - an agreement on a progressive modification of the Internet was reached Tuesday, avoiding a rupture between the United States, hostile with any international control, and the rest of the world, announced negotiators at the world Top on the company of the information (SMSI) of Tunis. MORE...

UN telcom agency says would be ready to run Internet Fri Sep 30, 2005 6:28 PM BST Printer Friendly | Email Article | RSS By Robert Evans GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations' International Telecommunications Union (ITU) is ready to take over governance of the Internet from the United States., ITU head Yoshio Utsumi said on Friday. The United States has clashed with the European Union and much of the rest of the world over the future of the Internet. It currently manages the global information system through a partnership with California-based company ICANN. "We could do it if we...

BLUNT AMENDMENT TO PREVENT INTERNATIONAL TAXES PASSES --“International taxation out of step with our nation’s formative opposition to ‘taxation without representation’” - WASHINGTON---An amendment sponsored by House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (Mo.) to the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for fiscal years 2006 and 2007 will prevent the taxation of American citizens or businesses by international entities. The amendment passed the House today by voice vote. “The United States already pays nearly 25 percent of the United Nations’ $2 billion annual budget,” Blunt said. “This payment, of course, comes out of the pockets of the American people. “Congress sent the...

A battle for the soul of the Internet by Elliot Noss , CNET News.com Published: 6/3/05 If U.N. agencies wrest control of Internet governance from ICANN, potential damage to the global economy could be incalculable. News provided by: With little fanfare, there is a battle going on for the soul of the Internet. The United Nations and the ITU (International Communications Union) are trying to wrest control of domain names, the DNS and IP addresses from ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). This battle manifests itself through the U.N.-created World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) and the ITU-lead...

The International Telecommunication Union is one of the most venerable of bureaucracies. Created in 1865 to facilitate telegraph transmissions, its mandate has expanded to include radio and telephone communications. But the ITU enjoys virtually no influence over the Internet. That remains the province of specialized organizations such as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN; the Internet Engineering Task Force; the World Wide Web Consortium; and regional address registries. The ITU, a United Nations agency, would like to change that. "The whole world is looking for a better solution for Internet governance, unwilling to maintain the current...

Here's something so sick it's almost laughable: the UN wants to run the Internet. Oh, they won't come out and just say exactly that, but a recent interview with the ITU's Houlin Zhao made it crystal clear what the UN is after, "Today the management by ICANN (is something that) people consider to be management by the United States, by one government. People definitely want to see some changes. I think everyone would agree that a better arrangement is something that we're looking for..." Bzzzzzt!! Wrong answer! Now I know the UN has had a stellar year...

The European Space Agency and the EU have decided to build a satellite navigation system, similar to the US Navstar/GPS system, called Galileo. Publicly, they claimed that they were doing so because they distrusted the US, and feared that the Pentagon might somehow disrupt the GPS signal. They also claimed that they needed to build this system in order to protect Europe’s independence from the US. Their plan, as it now stands, is to launch two test satellites that will begin transmitting, on frequencies allocated to the Europeans by the International Telecommunications Union, in 2006. In 2008, they hope to...

<p>GENEVA — Governments spearheaded by China, Brazil, India, Russia and Saudi Arabia are trying to place the Internet under the control of the United Nations or its member governments, a move that the United States and other developed countries are determined to resist.</p>

The U.S. government is supporting a move to a new standard designed to create a single point of contact for telephone and Internet communications. The new electronic numbering system, also known as ENUM, would give consumers a single number for all their telephone numbers, e-mail and instant messaging addresses, fax numbers and mobile phone numbers. ENUM would give each consumer what is being called a "single identifier." But before the system goes into effect, there will be a review by domestic and global communications security experts on the issues related to consumer data protection. The Federal Communications Commission will...