Internet
Hangs in Balance as World Governments Meet in Secret
3
December, 2012
There’s
a lot of sky-is-falling doomsday predictions about the World
Conference on International Telecommunications,
which opens Monday in Dubai with some 190-plus nations discussing the
global internet’s future.
That’s
because much of the accompanying proposals from the global community
have been kept under lock and key, although some of the positions of
nations have been leaked and published online.
The
idea behind the meetings is to update the International
Telecommunications Regulations governed by the International
Telecommunications Union,
a United Nations agency known as the ITU, that is responsible for
global communication technologies.
But
the outcome of the two-week session isn’t likely to make much
change, as no proposal will be accepted if not agreed to by all
nations. And the biggest fear — that the session will lead to net
censorship — has already come to pass.
“Member
States already have the right, as stated in Article 34 of the
Constitution of ITU, to block any private telecommunications that
appear ‘dangerous to the security of the State or contrary to its
laws, to public order or to decency.’ The treaty regulations cannot
override the Constitution,”
said Hamadoun Touré, the ITU Secretary-General.
Emma
Llanso, a policy attorney with the Center for Democracy &
Technology, said proposals by various governments to treat internet
connections like the telephone system are cause for concern regarding
privacy and the unfettered, free flow of information.
But
there is no “doomsday” internet kill switch scenario, she said.
“There’s
not going to be some kind of doomsday scenario that there’s a
treaty that makes the internet go dark,” Llanso said. “What we’re
seeing is governments putting forward visions of the internet and
having discussions.”
The last time the International Telecommunication Regulations global treaty was considered was in 1988. But technology has changed dramatically in the past 25 years.
The last time the International Telecommunication Regulations global treaty was considered was in 1988. But technology has changed dramatically in the past 25 years.
On
the table for discussion are spectrum and technology standards to
improve global interoperability and efficiency. Cybersecurity, spam
and data retention are also on the table.
Brett
Solomon, executive director of Access, a digital rights group, is
livid that the debate will be done largely in secret, with limited
input from stakeholders.
“The
ITU and its member states have attempted to respond to our criticisms
and other challenges about the WCIT, but they fail to address the
critical flaw: It’s a closed, government-controlled agency
that should
not be making decisions about internet policy,”
he said. “Such decisions necessarily require the participation of
governments and the private sector and civil society.”
The
United States is battling plans to treat the internet like the
telephone when it comes to transmission agreements. Some European and
Middle Eastern members are calling for so-called termination fees, in
which networks where a web session begins must pay the routing cost
for the session’s destination — like phone companies work with
phone calls.
“That
model, in general, lends itself to fewer providers, higher prices,
slower take-up of internet, slower
economic growth,”
said Terry Kramer, the head of the U.S. delegation.
Llanso
said termination fees, which would obviously be paid for by
consumers, also opens the door to more internet monitoring.
“You
can also read it as a campaign,” she said, “to make all internet
communication more traceable and more trackable, invading users’
privacy.”
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