US House Votes 397-0 To Oppose UN Control of the Internet

An anonymous reader writes "The U.S. House of Representatives voted 397-0 today on a resolution to oppose U.N. control of the internet. 'The 397-0 vote is meant to send a signal to countries meeting at a U.N. conference on telecommunications this week. Participants are meeting to update an international telecom treaty, but critics warn that many countries' proposals could allow U.N. regulation of the Internet.' The European Parliament passed a similar resolution a couple weeks ago, and the U.N. telecom chief has gone on record saying that freedom on the internet won't be curbed. However, that wasn't enough for U.S. lawmakers, who were quite proud of themselves for actually getting bipartisan support for the resolution (PDF). Rep Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said, 'We need to send a strong message to the world that the Internet has thrived under a decentralized, bottom-up, multi-stakeholder governance model.'"

Re:multi-stakeholder

[iluvcapra]

Tinpot dictatorships hate the Internet for the same reasons global superpowers like the US or Russia hate the UN.

The Internet looks decentralized but in practice it works to extend the economic and cultural hegemony of the incumbent operators; The UN looks decentralized but in practice it's really a mechanism for small countries to enjoin and harry large, powerful ones on an equal footing.

Re:(cynicism overload.. can't fight snarkyness...)

[rts008]

Yeah, it overloaded my BS/Spin/Weasel Word detector.

The last time I saw readings this high on the detector, we ended up with the PATRIOT Act, and all of it's goodness. :-(

This is doublespeak propaganda, and I expect we're about to get shafted by this somehow...it seems to work that way when they all agree unanimously like this.

Re:Republicans hate the UN

[Anonymous Coward]

Check out the ITU's plan [boingboing.net] for a unified deep packet inspection standard. This should convince anyone that the ITU is the last group that should get their hands on the control of the Internet.

Re:If only they were consistent

[mellon]

They've developed a pretty strong allergy to repeating SOPA and PIPA. When they floated a trial balloon a while back to try to add something spooky to the new privacy bill, there was a massive and immediate blowback, and they dropped it like a hot potato. My senator, Senator Leahy, recently sent a letter to the USTR telling them to slow down on TPP and try to make the process more open. Remember Pat Leahy, sponsor of PIPA? A strongly worded letter has no force of law, but it's something he never would have done even a year ago.

We are seeing the beginnings of a new understanding of this issue in Congress. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next couple of years—whether they keep floating trial balloons, or whether they get it that there is now a permanent constituency for internet freedom watching their every move. It will also be interesting to see if we can extend this third rail effect to nearby issues like copyright maximalism and patent maximalism.

Re:Republicans hate the UN

[TapeCutter]

The "good old days" when there were no property rights and you got what you wanted by bashing whoever had it, those "good old days"? The internet (indeed civilization)cannot exist without some level of cooperation, nor is it healthy in the long run to put global infrastructure under the control of any single government. If you want to reduce the influence of regimes such as N. Korea simply bribe them to cooperate on global infrastructure then use it against them. You can't have a planet that generally adhears to democratic principles if you simply dismiss over a billion people out of hand because their government is a bit dodgy.