[FT] An unexpected new proposal for international regulation of the internet drew warnings over the weekend of a spread of online censorship and left a global conference on the issue on the edge of collapse.Y'see, the internet is entirely too wild and wooly. Sombody's gotta be in charge!
The deep divisions over treatment of the internet came after a group of Arab states put forward a plan late on Friday that would require countries around the world to explicitly regulate internet companies.
So don't even think about making fun of the Profit (PTUI!)...
The proposal, made at a conference in Dubai to agree a new international telecoms treaty, has also won the backing of Russia and China, along with a group of other countries.
"Da, da! Can't have counterrevolutionaries... erm... forces of anarchy undermining stability!"
The pitch for direct regulation came as an unwelcome surprise to delegations from the US and other countries that have supported the current light system of regulation for the internet.
Just a few days ago they were saying this sort of thing wasn't gonna happen...
"The conference has been hijacked by a group of countries that want to extend regulation of the internet," said one person familiar with the US position. "This is completely unacceptable to the US point of view."
"If they take over it'll be no more dirty pictures, you betcha!"
Although countries are already free to impose national regulations, the US and its allies argue that enshrining the approach in a treaty would extend international legitimacy to repressive regimes that want to limit internet communications, while also making it easier for countries to co-operate on censorship and other restrictive practices.
If "regulating" the internet is a prerogative of governments, then the UN, as the world's sooper-dooper übergovernment, should be in overall charge. That means a new bureaucracy, by Gosh and by Goo.
Tariq al-Awadhi, head of the Arab states delegation, said that it made sense for internet companies to be included in the regulations since this would help force them to work together with network operators. "They need to come to commercial agreements with one another anyway," he said.
"Tut tut! A mere minor adjustment to procedures already in place. Nothing to get worked up about!"
A number of countries in the Arab world and in Africa have argued that internet companies should hand over more of their revenues to the communications networks that carry their traffic in other countries.
"They gotta be allowed to wet their beaks, too! It's just basic fairness!"
Traffic agreements are currently reached through direct negotiations between internet and network companies, an approach that the US maintains already allows for rates to be set at a fair level.