Staring down Internet freedom's foes
On Monday, representatives from 193 countries are convening in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, to renegotiate a treaty that could give an arm of the United Nations new powers over the Internet. Despite increased scrutiny of these talks, many countries seem more determined than ever to turn the supremely bad idea of establishing international regulation of the Net into reality. American diplomats will have to navigate a torrent of formal proposals that would curtail Internet freedom, limit consumers’ choices and increase costs for all Net users. How the negotiations end will shape the future of the Net, as well as the prospects for global freedom and prosperity.
The purpose of the Dubai talks, known as the World Conference on International Telecommunications, is to re-examine a 1988 treaty that loosened rules covering telephone and computer communications. The regulatory framework adopted in 1988 took a “hands off” approach to emerging technologies, such as what later became the Internet. As a result, the Internet is now the greatest deregulatory success story of all time. For instance, in 1995, shortly after it was privatized, only 16 million people used the Net. That number has spiked to more than 2.5 billion today with upward of a half million people becoming first-time Internet users each day. If, however, some key regimes have their way, such soaring positive trend lines will flatten.Continue Reading
For a decade, countries such as Russia and China, plus dozens of others from Arab and African regions, have pushed with increasing intensity for the International Telecommunication Union, a treaty-based organization operating under the U.N., to expand its authority over the Internet. In fact, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin candidly revealed last year in a meeting with the ITU secretary general that he has a goal to establish “international control over the Internet” through new ITU rules. Net users everywhere should take Putin and his allies quite seriously.
Months ago, chatter intensified that some countries were going to propose expanding the ITU’s rules to cover many corners of the complex Internet ecosystem. Yet many of these same countries, and ITU leaders, continue to issue vehement denials of an ITU Internet power grab. In recent days, however, the truth has been revealed in irrefutable, black and white diplomatic proposals to regulate key aspects of the Net. Stranger than fiction, here are just a few of the most recent submissions:
• Changing the treaty’s definitions of terms so the ITU and its member states can regulate the Internet economy like an ancient telephone monopoly;
• Eliminating anonymity for Internet consumers through new international “registration records” (in the name of “privacy”) allowing government monitoring of consumers’ Net activity;
• Replacing existing nonprofit private-sector groups that keep the Net working with global government agencies that would regulate vital Web naming, numbering, addressing and identification functions that allow every Web-connected device (such as mobile phones, tablets and personal computers) to work; and
• Creating global rules so foreign phone companies or governments could charge fees to consumers’ favorite websites (costs ultimately passed on to consumers), perhaps on a “per click” basis.