In award-winning journalist, Mathew Ingram’s article, Is the UN the Next Big Threat to Internet Freedom?, he explains how the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), an arm of the United Nations, wants very much to take over management of the Internet. One member of the bipartisan committee of U.S. congressional officials that wish to resist this attempt , Representative Fred Upton (R-Mich.), said in a statement before the hearing that:
International regulatory intrusion into the Internet would have disastrous results not just for the United States, but for people around the world.
This is interesting since Internet-control bills such as SOPA and PIPA –
bills that would have imposed a wide range of responsibilities on Internet service providers and others in the name of copyright protection and were widely criticized for infringing on freedom of speech and the open Internet.
– were making their way through the Senate and House of Representatives earlier this year. The rationale for the ITU’s move seems to be that because the Internet is a global entity, it should be managed according to global standards. Currently control over the fundamentals of internet like domain names lies with ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers), which is a private, U.S.-based nonprofit organization.
Ingram also explained that Federal Communications Commission member Robert McDowell also warned that some of the countries that belong to the ITU,
re-interested in restraining the essential freedom of the Internet because it causes problems for dictatorships and autocracies…
Moving control to the UN could be very dangerous, We will be at risk of losing the open and free Internet that has brought so much to so many. It’s practically the only place where true freedom of speech can take place. Blocks could be made to specific websites or services based on regional law. Also countries that want to censor the Internet or shut it off completely are already doing it. They’re not asking for the U.N.’s permission. Giving these countries the political cover of international approval would be a bad thing. I personally believe that this will never happen; the mass just won’t let it occur. The open Internet is central to people’s freedom to communicate, share, advocate and innovate.