ITU
What's Happening
STRAWMAN TEXT FROM ORIGINAL WFF SITE COPY DRAFT
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is a specialized agency of the United Nations focusing on information and communications technologies. In December 2012, the member nations of the ITU will be meeting in Dubai to consider treaty commitments that would sweep significant aspects of web regulation into the scope of the agency, stripping away functions that have always been managed through open, community-based approaches.
Despite the importance of these changes, members of civil society and the general public will be largely barred from these meetings. Only governments will be permitted to actively participate, or even view the proposals up for consideration. At the ITU, national governments alone will decide the fate of the web behind closed doors.
Leaked proposals suggest that the ITU is considering measures that would:
- increase censorship. The countries pushing hardest for ITU control are the same countries that aggressively censor the Internet, like Russia and China.
- stifle free speech. Defining “spam” so broadly that censors could justify blocking anything from photos of cute cats to human rights campaigns.
- threaten access. Allowing governments to cut off your internet access for any number of broadly defined reasons.
- spy on what you do online. Giving governments more power to monitor your internet traffic and impose regulations on how traffic is sent.
- add new tolls and costs. New rules to charge online content providers for reaching users across borders, making it harder for those in the developing world to access content.