The Hindu Business Line : US' cyber-rattling

WITH ITS BLOODY campaign against imagined or contrived threats to its moral superiority in the real world threatening to degenerate into a farce with tragic overtones, the United States is seeking to open another front — in cyberspace. Thus, at the recent, inconclusive United Nations meeting at Geneva, Prepcon-3, held to finalise the document on how the Internet ought to be governed, Washington rejected out of hand the entirely reasonable demand raised by several governments that the US relinquish its unilateral control over the Internet in favour of a new body under the oversight of the international community or the UN.

In fact, the US Ambassador to the UN, Mr David Gross, in a remarkable display of imperial chutzpah, stated that the UN "will not be in charge of the Internet. Period." Further, reacting to the European Union proposal to create a new governing body for the Internet, a bipartisan group of US lawmakers comprising four senior members of the US House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee is reported to have addressed a letter to the Department of State, the Department of Commerce, and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, exhorting the US government to maintain support for current Internet governance. Their thesis, which would have been appalling in its arrogance if it had not been for its fatuity, is that, given the importance of the Internet to the world economy, it is essential that the underlying domain-name system remains "stable and secure" — something which only the US can presumably guarantee. However, it must be conceded in all fairness to them that the US legislators have had the sense not to attempt, in their letter, a rebuttal to the proposal put forward last month by the EU that a new model be created for allocating Internet Protocol number blocks, a task currently undertaken by the International Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the California-based private non-profit company which works under the aegis of the US Department of Commerce.

Be that as it may, the US intransigence in the matter has provoked the 25-nation EU and many non-EU countries to work towards an arrangement under which they will award to themselves control of the Internet. If all goes well, the arrangement will be tabled at the WSIS to be held in Tunisia between November 16 and 18 with Internet management on the agenda. It will, almost certainly, not be accepted in toto, but it is bound to compel the US to reconsider the rigidity of its current position. Whatever the eventual outcome, it will be considered progress if the US sheds its smugness. It would be a travesty if that shrill champion of free speech should seek to keep control of the Internet, an acknowledged global forum for free expression and exchange of ideas.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
US' cyber-rattling

World Development Report 2006 — Refreshing emphasis on equity for growth

Turnaround traits

FDI: Pointers for the future

Unravelling TQM

FDI cap

An unwelcome move

Human development