At UN meet, worries about US Internet control, free flow of information

At this year's just-concluded Internet Governance Forum in Rio de Janeiro, countries again expressed unhappiness with the level of US control over the Internet. But civil liberties groups aren't thrilled about giving repressive regimes a say in the process, either.<BR><BR>Read More

 

[Hak Foo]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by xoa:<BR>does things like actually allow non-democratic countries a real say in important policies. </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>Many of the things the UN does are not matters that are freedom/oppression issues, but merely orchestration ones.<BR><BR>Aren't some of the standards for data communication set by a UN body? Yeah, them damn non-democratic countries are out to make a lousy 56k modem standard!<BR><BR>Also, even a nondemocratic regime is still more likely to have the needs of its citizens at heart than another nation. No matter how repressive you are as a government, you have to deliver just enough goods to avoid the tipping point where people rise up.

 

[Hak Foo]

Well, that's the merit of the UN, in a way-- since they're not tied to the whims of any specific government, it's unlikely they'll be able to stop bickering and infighting about HOW to be repressive long enough to establish repressive rules.<BR><BR>After all, many of the repressive states that might want to ban certain traffic will be bordered with other repressive states that want that same traffic for propaganda or undermining purposes.<BR><BR>At times, ineptitude wins.<BR><BR>I see this as much like creating an off-shore holding company, to protect the crown jewels of the information age from the local government-- only if you do it right, maybe you can put the assets outside of any individual government's reach.<BR><BR>Maybe they could make it a "shoot-out" thing-- which nation will offer the most compelling case to establish the ICANN in?