Hidden Nook
"Because in Cyberspace, no one can hear you scream."
Friday, April 08, 2005
U.N. Wants To Govern Internet
[Media Source*] (Hat Tip: Junto Boyz)
"The whole world is looking for a better solution for Internet governance, unwilling to maintain the current situation," Houlin Zhao, director of the ITU's Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, said last year...
n a series of speeches over the last year, Zhao has suggested that the ITU could become involved in everything from security and spam to managing how Internet Protocol addresses are assigned. The ITU also is looking into some aspects of voice over Internet Protocol--VoIP--communications, another potential area for expansion.
Although currently the Internet, an international "network" (or rather network of networks) is in the control of nobody (although the U.S. has major influence) the U.N. has bigger things to worry about right now (like the "sex-for-food scandal" rocking the African continent). Why should we hand them custody of the information superhighway when then can not properly manage custody of the citizens they are suppose to protect?
Junto Boyz has an interesting response towards this issue:
The U.N.'s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) wants a say in Internet policy. Can you imagine the headaches of dealing with such a bureaucracy? And how much other nations will try to leverage the ITU for their economic and political benefit? Such as China who constantly monitors and regulates their citizens' Internet usage, and now a representative from their nation, Houlin Zhao (director of the ITU's Telecommunication Standardization Bureau), is spearheading this effort for more power and influence. &@%# no!
I agree (except for the "&@%# no" part). Having the United Nations run our internet would probably amount to one massive (and extremely unorganized) big brother. What if their was an ITU board and every regime that censors the internet (such as China, and semi successful Iran) was able to "sit in" at the table? Such a board would become a mockery of the very intentions of it's existence (much like the Human Rights Commission at the U.N. is) and instead of enforcing the laws and guaranteeing a free flow of information, censorship would probably develop (especially with the bloggers).
The last thing we need is government controlling the information flow (something the Canadian government is now learning) and having the U.N. in charge would not only be a mistake, but quite possibly a threat to freedom of speech itself. If the U.N. desires to rule over the World Wide Web, they need to first begin taking real responsibility of our world's political climate (instead of trying to please everyone around them) and if they are successful with doing that then they can approach the world body with how they are going to make the internet "better."
Until then, (and I quote Junto Boyz as he quotes Secretary General Annan) &@%# no!
Deutsch ⢠Español ⢠Français ⢠Italiano ⢠Portugese ⢠æ¥æ¬èª ⢠íêµ â¢ æ±è¯
Comment Policy: Comments posted here do not necessarily reflect the views of this site or the authors, and are the legal responsibility of the original commenter. Intelligent opinions welcome. Comment here.
By Darnell Clayton ⢠10:22 PM ⢠Email Post ⢠â¢
Enter your email address below to subscribe.
Button Membership
Important Information
View Blog Stats
Plus 10,667 hits before August 12, 2005
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
Opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of anyone that I work with, for, or associate with in any manner.
