House urges Obama to fight UN web regulation
By Brendan Sasso -
08/02/12 07:04 PM ET
The House unanimously approved a resolution on Thursday
urging the Obama administration to fight efforts to give a United Nations
agency more control over the Internet.
Proposals to give the UN's International Telecommunication
Union (ITU) more control over the governance of the Internet could come up at a
conference in Dubai in December. The move is reportedly backed by China,
Russia, Brazil, India and other U.N. members.
The Obama administration has already announced its strong
opposition to such proposals.
"Today’s unanimous vote sends a clear and
unmistakable message: the American people want to keep the Internet free from
government control and prevent Russia, China and other nations from succeeding
in giving the U.N. unprecedented power over Web content and
infrastructure," said Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.), who sponsored the
resolution. "We cannot let this happen."
The proposals could give the U.N. more control over
cybersecurity, data privacy, technical standards and the Web’s address system.
They could also allow foreign, government-owned Internet providers to charge
extra for international traffic and allow for more price controls.
The Internet is currently governed under a
“multi-stakeholder” approach that gives power to a host of nonprofits, rather
than governments.
The resolution urges the administration to "promote
a global Internet free from government control and preserve and advance the
successful multistakeholder model that governs the Internet today."
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has introduced a counterpart
resolution in the Senate.
Google applauded the House vote in a blog post by Vint
Cerf, one of the founders of the Internet who is now Google's "Chief
Internet Evangelist."
"In the lead-up to the December conference, the
future of the Internet is at stake, and I hope that other countries will adopt
publicly similar positions," Cerf wrote.
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