Fergie's Tech Blog

WSIS - Annan: UN has no plans to 'take over' the Internet

John Blau writes in InfoWorld:

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, seeking to defuse a feud over Internet governance ahead of a global summit next week, wrote in a newspaper column published Saturday that no proposals exist to create a U.N. agency to take over the Net.

The column, published in the Washington Post, comes amid growing concerns that next week's World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) could be derailed by the politically charged topic of Internet governance. Numerous governments, including the European Union, have called for an international governing body and a reduced role for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Responding to claims that the U.N. wants to become that body and "take over, police or otherwise control the Internet," Annan wrote that "nothing could be farther from the truth."

posted by Fergie @ 11/07/2005 08:16:00 AM