U.N. to control use of Internet?
Developing countries want global body to govern cyberspace
2-22-05
Leaders of a U.N. Internet panel yesterday said they hope to set up a global system where cyberspace would be under the control of the United Nations.
The committee, which was set up in December 2003, is laying the groundwork for the U.N.-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society where a final decision on the control of the Net will be determined, stated a Reuters report. The summit will take place in Tunis in November.
The panel is considering such problems as cyber-crime and e-mail spam.
ICANN, the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, currently is the most recognizable Internet governing body, but developing countries want a U.N. agency, such as the International Telecommunication Union, to have control over domain names and other issues.
"There is an issue that is out there and that needs to be resolved," Nitin Desai, chairman of the panel and special adviser to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, told Reuters.
Incorporated in 1998, ICANN oversees management of the Internet's addressing system, which matches numerical addresses to website addresses. Critics claim ICANN is subject to U.S. political influence.
According to the report, developing countries see the International Telecommunication Union, a 138-year-old trade body that among other things established country code rules for international telephone calls, as better able to deal with Internet governance.
At the first World Summit on the Information Society in 2003, French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin called for international rules to govern the Net.
"The information society offers new opportunities, but like all new technological revolutions it also brings uncertainty," Raffarin said. "It calls on us to establish international rules, which citizens can rely on."
At the time, China was leading efforts to globalize Internet control. Beijing allows its own citizens online access, but only with government surveillance. China was joined in its efforts by representatives of Syria, Egypt, Vietnam and South Africa.
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From December 2003;
A U.N. grab for Internet control?
Proposal expected at global summit in Geneva
WASHINGTON – A global summit set for next week in Geneva is expected to provide the venue for a plan to put the Internet under United Nations control.
Developing nations – including China, Syria and Vietnam – are pushing for the U.N. or one of its agencies to regulate the Internet, perhaps as soon as 2005. Diplomats from more than 60 countries plan to take up the issue at the U.N. World Information Summit in Geneva beginning next Wednesday.
At issue are the operations currently run by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, a California group that assigns Internet protocol addresses and oversees major domains, including .com, .net and .org. The group also helps set technical rules for how the Internet operates. Developing nations said their interests would be better served if the Internet were managed by an intergovernmental group, such as the United Nations or one of its arms.
The U.S., represented at the summit by Ambassador David Gross, the State Department's coordinator for international communications and information policy, is opposing the plan.
The summit's goal is to achieve consensus on a draft declaration of principles and draft plan of action, which reportedly includes a recommendation to place the governance of the Internet under the U.N.
"Standardization is one of the essential building blocks of the Information Society," reads the most recent draft of the WSIS Draft Declaration of Principles. "There should be particular emphasis on the development and adoption of international standards."
Leading the effort is China, which allows its own citizens online access, but only with government surveillance. China has so far been joined in its efforts by representatives of Syria, Egypt, Vietnam and South Africa. Other reports suggest Russia, India, Saudi Arabia and Brazil may be on board, too.
Critics of the global Internet idea say certain nations like China want to take away ICANN's duties and place them under governmental auspices, along with increased control over security and content, placing freedom of press and individual freedom of expression at serious risk.
The summit is expected to attract more than 50 heads of state and 6,000 delegates who will address issues from the digital divide to Internet governance.
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