Does Kofi Annan and the UN want to control the internet?

[Loonman]

http://www.canoe.ca/CalgaryNews/cs.cs-12-10-0064.html


Like Hell. I'll be damned if I let an international body control global communication and other aspects of the internet.

However at the speed the UN debates, this shouldn't be an issue for at least 10 years.

[morgan2]

1. better than the us controlling it

[Gore1FL]

2. Controlling the Internet is impossible with the current infrastructure

I wouldn't be worried. No one will put up the money to change it.

[Paschall]

3. Before bashing Annan and the UN, try reading the article

"Developing countries, including China, South Africa, India and Brazil want to wrest control from a private, U.S.-selected organization and place it with a proposed intergovernmental group, possibly under the UN."

And it's not like "international bodies" don’t already exercise control over global communications.

[LSatyl]

4. Yup, it's much better to have an undemocratic, ...

unaccountable and untransparent body like ICANN control it. At least that way only the U.S. geovernemnt, through the Department of Commerce, and some select U.S. Companies (like Verisign, Verio and NSI) can exert influence.

As other people have posted, the ITU has "controlled" all other electronic communication media (i.e. telegraph, telephone, fax, radio, sattelites, basically every electronic form of communication *except* the internet) for over a century. It has guaranteed both interoperability and accountability.

Given the track record of both bodies (ICANN and ITU), I know which I prefer, and it ain't the Californian non-profit!!!