Oh my god, I think hell just froze over

[loyalkydem]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/12/05/house-votes-unanimously-to-oppose-un-internet-regulations/

The US House of Representatives voted unanimously Wednesday to oppose any efforts to give the United Nations new authority to regulate the Internet.

The 397-0 vote, following a similar vote in the Senate, came as delegates were meeting in Dubai to revise a global telecom treaty, a gathering which some say could be used to impose new controls on the Internet.

Representative Greg Walden said ahead of the vote that lawmakers should “send a strong bipartisan, bicameral signal about America’s commitment to an unregulated Internet.”

He said Washington should not “stand idly by while countries like Russia and China seek to extort control over the Internet.”

Representative Marsha Blackburn echoed the comments, saying that “several hostile countries are seeking to use this opportunity to impose new international regulations on the Internet.”

She added: “We need to send a strong message to the world that the Internet has thrived under a decentralized, bottom-up multi-stakeholder governance model

More at link above

[RC]

3. +10

Why do I think there is something else going on behind why the UN No vote?

[DreamGypsy]

2. Great, but one should not naively assume...

...from this vote that the United States government will not in the future attempt to "extort control over the Internet" and threaten the "decentralized, bottom-up multi-stakeholder governance model ".

After all, "Continuing vigilance is the price of liberty." (nothing is eternal)

[pepperbear]

9. my thoughts exactly.

Who knows? the UN could be about neutrality while the US is about control.

[jeff47]

14. The US Government already controls the Internet. There's no need to assert anything.

ICANN, the people who control what actually make up the Internet, is operating under a contract from the US Department of Commerce. The Department of Commerce took over the Internet from the Department of Defense.

Everything else that people think of as "the Internet" runs on top of what they control.

[freshwest]

16. +1,000.

[madinmaryland]

4. But they will happily pass laws allowing for spying on email.

Fucking hypocrites.

[radiclib]

5. OF COURSE no "global" regulation

That's OUR job!

[yardwork]

10. Exactly my thought.

This was a gimmee. The Republicans vote against giving the UN any authority at all, and the Democrats vote against letting the UN control the internet. A very rare unanimous vote. Means nothing whatsoever about how Congress feels about giving themselves the power to control the internet.

[JI7]

6. the key words here are "united nations" if some republican got into office

they would easily vote for something like this giving the US authority.

[DonCoquixote]

7. I believe the proper meme is

The old but good one about broken clocks being right twice a day.

[SilveryMoon]

8. This almost makes up for the shit they did and continue to do...

The key word is almost...

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/king-of-takedown-requests-google-says-the-u-s-government/80102

New Google data shows the U.S. government has more than doubled its requests for search results, YouTube videos and content takedowns during the last six months of 2011.

Google said it received 187 content removal requests for the removal of just shy of 6,200 items. The search giant complied with 42 percent of those requests --- a figure totalling more than any other country.

And let's not forget that damnable piece of legislation called SOPA....

[Earth_First]

11. Certainly something is afoul...

Excuse my cynicism, however there must be some provision which limits some form of censorship or commerce clause that was omitted, therefore wholly opposed by our esteemed leaders...

[randome]

12. It's only because the letters U and N were involved.

Don't get your hopes up. Hell is still smokin' hot!

[jeff47]

13. You shouldn't celebrate too much, this isn't about an unregulated Internet

It's about keeping the current US-regulated Internet.

The Internet has never been under a "bottom-up multi-stakeholder governance model". ICANN, the people who actually control what is the Internet, is a California corporation operating under contract from the Department of Commerce. The Department of Commerce took over the Internet from the Department of Defense after DARPA invented it.

Everything else that makes up the Internet is built on top of what they control.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_governance#Governors

[FarCenter]

15. Plus any individual country can restrict peering arrangements, limit BGP exchanges, put in firewalls

The notion that the Internet is inherently free and egalitarian is wrong. Large corporations have developed all the tools to operate "intranets" under strict controls and these technologies are available for use by nation states.