Dec 17
Should we let the UN run the internet?
“This is not just a hypothetical question. The ruling elites in a number of foreign countries (including South Africa, China, and Brazil) believe that the United States exerts too much control over the Internet. They believe that it would be better if something called the International Telecommunications Union, a United Nations agency, controlled the ‘Net.” (12/15/03)
This scary concept comes via Rational Review.
2 Comments so far
Where can MB go to blow up this dangerous, insane, corrupting thought. That UNecessary bunch of glop deserves to die on the Hudson so the US can use the property for something USEFUL.
I have seen a couple of mentions of this power grab. Not stated is that those countries which censor (eg China) want to have whatever they censor to be suppressed by the world as a whole, but I see no other real reason for this. Seems the US delegate, when objections grew, dismissed the whole thing as [paraphrase] “We have merely decided to fund a study”. Uh-huh. So why are we also hearing that IT-knowledgeable people aren’t even being called upon for opinions, and they and the press have been excluded even as observers?
The one reasonable voice of the attendes was from, of all places, Zimbabwe: one of the big points discussed was that Africa had only about 2% of Internet receptivity and how could that be increased, and Zimbabwe pointed out that even if laptops were distributed for free they’d be of little use until electricity (and phones, or satellite transceivers) was made available outside the cities.