US rejects changes to net control

September 2005

The US has rejected calls by European Union (EU) officials to give control of the net over to a more representative United Nations (UN) body.

Wrangling over who should essentially be the net police, managing domain names and net traffic routing fairly, has been going on for some time.

The matter is supposed to be discussed at November's World Summit on the Information Society in Tunisia.

But at a pre-Summit meeting this week, the US said it would resist the plans.

In the meeting, the European Union (EU) backed proposals that control of the net should be under a more representative body.

"We will not agree to the UN taking over the management of the internet," said Ambassador David Gross, the US coordinator for international communications and information policy at the State Department.

"Some countries want that. We think that's unacceptable."