Pages

Thursday, December 06, 2012

Just great. The UN wants to take over the Internet.

From Al Arabiya/AFP:
Telecom companies across the world may be given the opportunity to dig through data passed across the Internet more easily following a move to allow the United Nations new authority to regulate the Web.

At a conference in Dubai this week, Members of the United Nation’s International Telecommunications Union (ITU) agreed to work towards implementing a standard for the Internet that would allow for eavesdropping on a worldwide scale.

The ITU members decided to adopt the Y.2770 standard for deep packet inspection, a top-secret proposal by way of China that will allow telecom companies across the world to more easily dig through Web data, according to a report from Russia Today.

The gathering which opened this week in Dubai of the U.N.’s International Telecommunications Union has triggered fierce objections from Washington, and from Internet freedom activists who fear new rules that could end the freewheeling system of the Internet.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously on 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.”
The Internet controlled by the same countries that control the UN?

Even though it is unlikely to happen anytime soon, in a decade or two this could become a major problem.

Just imagine what Muslim countries could band together to do to the Internet.

Say goodbye to Jesus and Mo.