Fergie's Tech Blog

U.S. Insists on Keeping Control of Internet

An AP newswire article by Bradley S. Klapper, via ABC News, reports that:

The United States refuses to relinquish its role as the Internet's principal traffic policeman, rejecting calls in a United Nations meeting for a U.N. body to take over, a top U.S. official said Thursday.

"We will not agree to the U.N. taking over the management of the Internet," said Ambassador David Gross, the U.S. coordinator for international communications and information policy at the State Department. "Some countries want that. We think that's unacceptable."

Speaking on the sidelines of the last preparatory meeting before November's World Summit on the Information Society in Tunisia, Gross said that progress was being made on a number of issues, but not on the question of Internet governance.

The stalemate over who should serve as the principal traffic cops for Internet routing and addressing could derail the summit which aims to ensure a fair sharing of the Internet for the benefit of the whole world.

posted by Fergie @ 9/29/2005 06:28:00 AM