A UN Controlled Internet

March 2005

China's ambassador to the United Nations last week lashed out against what it called the U.S. "monopolization" of the internet, and urged the UN to employ a "more rational and just" governance system. The call to move Internet management away from ICANN and into UN jurisdiction has grown louder, a number of countries complaining ICANN operates with an American bias.

Most of these countries want to see Internet governance handled by the 138 year old International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a division of the UN. To aid that migration, the UN recently established a new internet governance group, dedicated toward dealing with spam, cyber-security and other Internet-related issues.

At the first "World Summit on the Information Society", ICANN president Paul Twomey wasn't allowed to attend at least one of the meetings. From outside he told journalists:

"At ICANN, anybody can attend meetings, appeal decisions or go to ombudsmen, and here I am outside a UN meeting room where diplomats most of whom know little about the technical aspects are deciding in a closed forum how 750 million people should reach the Internet. I am not amused."