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Each country has its own policy on how free the Internet should be, but the outcome of a conference in Dubai next month might change that.
I will speculate for most of this article as to the repercussions of an international organization taking control of the Internet, so before I do, here is a site with a growing list of official documentation, including proposals from attending countries and regional representatives, concerning what those countries and representatives think should be done with the Internet: wcitleaks.org
At the World Conference on International Telecommunications, representatives to the United Nations will discuss the International Telecommunication Regulations, which date back to 1988. The Department of Economic and Social Affairs, an organ of the UN, published a news release on Nov. 6, stating, “Over 2 billion people are now connected to Internet but digital divide remains wide.”
The article describes current Internet use and the gap in how people across the world are able to use it. Folks in the United States can see news, social media sites, Wikipedia and some of the fringier offerings that are there if they dig deep enough. Not every population enjoys every treasure the Internet holds, and the news release included the following to dispel the rumors that the UN would be controlling the Internet:
“‘The current International Telecommunication Regulations set the stage for the mobile revolution and the information society — and we are confident that the 2012 ITRs will help usher in the knowledge society,’ the Secretary-General of the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Hamadoun Touré, told participants at the Forum. ‘Simply put, WCIT-12 is about putting information and communication technologies in the hands of all the world’s people.’
Concerning WCIT and the Internet, Touré described as ‘ridiculous’ misleading stories about the ITU or the UN ‘taking over the Internet.’”
I would like to think this is the case. One only needs to consider the significant effect social media had in expediting the Arab Spring, or how people tried to use it in the United States to lend momentum to the nationwide Occupy movements. However, the people attending this conference include leaders of countries that do not value freedom the way people in the United States do. Some will argue that international organizations are a tool to facilitate harmonious international relations, but because politics inevitably involves power plays, I am reluctant to think this conference will result in a decision for the benefit of all.
I received an email on Tuesday from Vint Cerf, a vice president and chief Internet evangelist for Google. Of the conference he said, “The world’s governments will meet behind closed doors to discuss the future of the Internet. Some governments want to use this meeting to increase censorship and regulate the Internet.
Learn more about what’s at stake at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU):
Google.com/TakeAction. A free and open world depends on a free and open Internet. And a free and open Internet depends on you.”
He also included the Twitter hashtag #FreeAndOpen, if you care to follow the movement. At the website he lists, you can pledge your support for a free and open Internet, although I’m not sure how significantly this support will impress the folks in Dubai come Dec. 3.
Follow the grapevine online when searching any keyword associated with the event, and you’ll find most people are talking about the negative repercussions of taking Internet control from the hands of nonprofit organizations with no government relations and handing it over to representatives from countries all over the world. Anybody abusing power and mistreating the people they rule should rightly be afraid of the Internet. Where would we be without the video from Mother Jones of Mitt Romney bad-mouthing nearly half of all Americans? Where would we be without WikiLeaks?
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When the Internet is in the hands of the powerful, it will be all too tempting for them to smear the transparency the public has been trying to establish. We need to know what’s happening in our world, and though there is no one truth we will find on the Internet, regardless of the source, it is important to have all information available to us so that we can make the most informed decisions. This is the foundation of a healthy democracy.
I sympathize with the more optimistic members of the UN who are just trying to allow other populations to begin to access the breadth of information available online in other parts of the world. I want everyone to enjoy what we are so privileged to have at our fingertips in the States and elsewhere. I’ve just completely lost my faith in politicians, who have proven over and over again that they will act according to what will benefit them rather than what best serves the public interest. There has to be another way to make sure that others enjoy this privilege, and it does not start with government control over the Internet.
