U.N. Launches Conference To Destroy Free Speech Censor The Internet

Free Speech must be stopped.

The United Nations just launched an 11-day conference in its ongoing scheme to take over the Internet.  Leading the charge is Russia, declaring its “sovereign right to regulate the national Internet segment”.

Fox News reports,

A U.N. conference that kicked off today in Dubai has sparked fear of Internet censorship in the U.S. — something U.S. Ambassador Terry Kramer said he is doing everything in his power to prevent.

“Nothing regarding the Internet do we want subject to U.N. review and regulation,” Kramer told FoxNews.com.

Monday marked the first day of an 11-day conference. Kramer, who leads the U.S. delegation at the conference, said that the first day had “gone well” and so far delegates are “still in the early stage, talking about what should be reviewed when.” No specific regulations have been debated yet.

“[Proposals] on content review and on pricing the transfer of content, which would essentially tax the Internet… we are actively opposing those,” Kramer said.

While almost all of the U.N. meeting is secret, many documents have leaked, including one proposal from the Russian delegation declaring “the sovereign right … to regulate the national Internet segment.”

It echoes a call from Russian President Vladimir Putin last year calling for “global control over such [Internet] exchange. This is certainly a priority on the international agenda.”

Kramer said the Russian proposal worried him.

“Candidly, we were very concerned with the Russian proposal. I think it was the most stark in nature of all the proposals that have been put out, because it basically is proposing Internet governance managed either by the ITU or the national government. There are traffic routing proposals in there that would open the door to potential censorship, which obviously we don’t agree with,” Kramer said. …

“The development of the Internet itself shows a different model of international co-operation than the U.N. uses. The U.N. tried to help build the Internet. They had their own network standard in the 1980s and nobody used that, and it died. Instead engineers in the U.S., China, Brazil — around the world — reached consensus about the rules for the web.”

Ambassador Kramer said the U.S. delegation is opposing Internet regulation because the hands-off approach has worked so well.

“The Internet had thrived because it has been left in an open environment, and all the commercial opportunities that accrued, and the rights to free speech and democracy, are because it’s been left alone.”

Here’s a shock.  Russia is denying their pursuit to censor the Internet…despite the fact that their secret documents reveal otherwise.  Of course, the Russian bureaucrats are known for their honesty.

Hat tip: Guest Blogger John

 

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