IP Democracy: Senator to U.N.: Back Off from the Internet

Courtesy of Declan McCullough at CNET, Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) has introduced a resolution that would protect the Internet from a U.N takeover. If ratified, the resolution would lend political support to the Bush Administration and Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) during negotiations at a U.N. summit in Tunisia next month.

The dispute centers on the central role the U.S. plays in organizing the Internet. On the table is the idea that a U.N. body, the International Telecommunications Union, take over certain functions now governed by ICANN, an non-profit organization located in Marina Del Ray, CA, and the U.S. Commerce Department. Last month, the EU backed the idea that control over the Internet’s root zone files be removed from the U.S. entities and placed in the hands of the U.N.

Coleman’s resolution endorses the status quo, but goes further in warning that U.N. control could turn the Internet into “an instrument of censorship and political suppression.”

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on October 19, 2005 7:54 AM to IP Democracy