Proposals for United Nations to regulate the ENTIRE internet

Mathloom · Jun 19, 2012

Leaked Documents Show the U.N.'s Internet Power Grab...
With very low visibility, a small agency in the United Nations - the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) - might be about to quietly try and regulate the entire Internet.

The ITU has planned a meeting this upcoming December where each of the 193 member nations will vote on various proposed Internet regulations. What's striking is that the details of the proposals have been kept secret, so it was impossible to know what authoritarian governments were plotting or how the U.S. was responding.

Until now. A pair of researchers from George Mason University created a website called WCITLeaks.org in the hopes that someone with access to the secretive proposals would leak them and make them available to the public. Last Friday, that's exactly what happened. Someone leaked the 212-page planning document being used by governments to prepare for the December conference. You can read it yourself here.

What it shows is breathtaking. First, China is proposing "to give countries authority over the information and communication infrastructure within their state" and require that online companies "operating in their territory" use the Internet "in a rational way"- in short, to legitimize full government control.

Second, several proposals would give the U.N. power to regulate online content for the first time, under the guise of protecting against computer malware or spam.

Third, Russia and some Arab countries are proposing to be able to inspect private communications such as email.

Fourth, Iran and Russia are proposing new rules to measure Internet traffic along national borders and bill the originator of the traffic, as with international phone calls - essentially creating national toll booths for data.

Fifth, there is a proposal that would give the U.N. control over the Internet's Domain Name System, replacing ICANN which operates under a contract from the U.S. Commerce Department.

Take all of this in its totality and what we see are proposals that would A) grant power and authority over the very functioning of the Internet to the United Nations, and B) grant authoritarian governments the ability to censor, monitor, and more strictly control both the content of the Web itself and people's behavior on it. What's at stake is nothing less than a system based on open flows of information, as opposed to an "information world order" based on government controls.

L. Gordon Crovitz from the Wall Street Journal is right in his assessment: "Authoritarian regimes are busy lobbying a majority of the U.N. members to vote their way. The leaked documents disclose a U.S. side that has hardly begun to fight back. That's no way to win this war."

Everyone better wake up. Soon.
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http://thenerfherder.blogspot.com/2012/06/leaked-documents-show-uns-internet.html?m=1

It's a blog post, but the story and referenced website seem legit.

DaDakota · Jun 19, 2012

Can't happen - unless you are in a theocracy, or China !

DD

Kojirou · Jun 19, 2012

Thought Mathloon would be jumping up and down with joy to see proposals which would more fully unite the world.

Mathloom · Jun 19, 2012

If it united people, yes. But this is the opposite of uniting people.

AroundTheWorld · Jun 20, 2012

As long as this doesn't mean this...

SamFisher · Jun 20, 2012

Fantasies about secret UN bureaucratic cabals destroying the internet are fun but betray an underlying ignorance about how the UN works and how it relates to domestic laws and regulations.

MoonDogg · Jun 20, 2012

SamFisher said: ↑

Fantasies about secret UN bureaucratic cabals destroying the internet are fun but betray an underlying ignorance about how the UN works and how it relates to domestic laws and regulations.
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CCorn · Jun 20, 2012

They would be regulating a lot of p*rn.

Dairy Ashford · Jun 21, 2012

Man, if you're looking for just one reason to be happy about living here, it's probably democracy, capitalism, rule of law, safe cross-country air-travel or free K-12 education and working hospitals in every town for every man, woman and child; but internet accessibility's definitely up there.

Mathloom · Jun 21, 2012

pouhe said: ↑

Man, if you're looking for just one reason to be happy about living here, it's probably democracy, capitalism, rule of law, safe cross-country air-travel or free K-12 education and working hospitals in every town for every man, woman and child; but internet accessibility's definitely up there.
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Assuming you are not part of the 65% of the world in sheer poverty, everyone can afford access to VPN or proxy breakers or whatever, no one is sitting around going "I can't believe I can't read this!!".

It's the principle that counts. You shouldn't need these things to access the internet. I should be able to make this post on a public forum without it going through a TSA-style pat-down before getting to you.

AroundTheWorld · Jun 21, 2012

Mathloom said: ↑

It's the principle that counts. You shouldn't need these things to access the internet. I should be able to make this post on a public forum without it going through a TSA-style pat-down before getting to you.
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Complain to your dictatorial government. Internet in Dubai is heavily censored. I already posted one example for that above.

Oh wait - you are a part of that dictatorial government, and a paid shill.

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Proposals for United Nations to regulate the ENTIRE internet

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