Foxes guarding the hen-house from the wolves

ITU tries power grab to control the internet. Who will stop this? Those freedom loving people who gave us SOPA and PIPA [Link]

Whatever the flaws of the current system, however, critics of the ITU’s plans — including one of the “fathers of the internet,” TCP/IP developer Vinton Cerf, who testified before the congressional subcommittee on Thursday — say that putting control of the ‘net under the UN body would subject the internet to the whims of many nations whose commitment to democracy and free speech is questionable at best, including China and Russia. Cerf, who is currently Chief Internet Evangelist at Google, said the move would threaten the free and open nature of the internet:

Such a move holds profound – and I believe potentially hazardous – implications for the future of the Internet and all of its users. If all of us do not pay attention to what is going on, users worldwide will be at risk of losing the open and free Internet that has brought so much to so many.

A revenue grab, and a tool for dictators?

Not only could the group be forced to consider a host of issues such as blocking access to specific websites or services based on regional laws — such as Germany’s ban on Nazi references, or Turkey’s ban against criticism of the country’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk — but critics have warned that the ITU could start meddling with the system of payments that international telecommunications companies have put in place for handing off web traffic as it moves around the globe. They’re afraid ITU members will try to siphon off some of those payments to fill the pockets of their ailing state-owned phone and internet companies.

In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal earlier this year, Federal Communications Commission member Robert McDowell also warned that some of the countries who belong to the ITU — each of whom gets a single vote — are interested in restraining the essential freedom of the internet because it causes problems for dictatorships and autocracies:

[L]et’s face it, strong-arm regimes are threatened by popular outcries for political freedom that are empowered by unfettered Internet connectivity. They have formed impressive coalitions, and their efforts have progressed significantly.

In addition to the resolution passed by the congressional subcommittee, and statements against the ITU move by groups such as the Internet Society and the Center for Democracy and Technology, there are several petitions circulating on the internet aimed at raising awareness about the UN’s plan. One urges the ITU to “release your preparatory documents; recognize the role of the user, and reject any proposals that might centralize control of the internet.”

Activism by concerned citizens helped derail SOPA and PIPA, but these were bills being promoted through the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, not the United Nations — and at the UN and within the ITU, there are some very powerful states whose interests lie in controlling the internet in a much more fundamental way than either SOPA or PIPA did. Whether criticism from the U.S. or anywhere else is enough to stop that effort is an open question, one that will be answered once and for all in December in Dubai.