[bc-gnso] U.S. official: If the UN keeps trying to regulate the Web, we should consider pulling funding

[Phil Corwin <psc@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

FYI--

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/09/12/u-s-official-if-the-un-keeps-trying-to-regulate-the-web-we-should-consider-pulling-funding/

U.S. official: If the UN keeps trying to regulate the Web, we should consider 
pulling funding
By Brian Fung, Updated: September 12, 2013
The United States should consider withdrawing its funding from the 
International Telecommunications Union if the UN agency keeps trying to assert 
regulatory authority over the Internet, a U.S. official said Thursday.
Ajit Pai, a Republican member of the Federal Communications Commission, hinted 
that the intergovernmental body's proposed 
rules<http://www.zdnet.com/itu-chief-claims-dubai-meeting-success-despite-collapse-of-talks-7000008808/>
 - which critics say gives governments more power to censor the Web - may have 
put the group's future in jeopardy.
"If the organization decides to become an international regulatory authority 
for the Internet," he said at a Washington conference for gay and lesbian 
technology advocates, "we will have to ask ourselves whether the United States 
should remain one of its top two funders."
The United States 
contributes<http://defundtheitu.com/uploads/S11-CL-C-0041.pdf> nearly $11 
million a year to the ITU, a figure that accounts for 7.7 percent of the 
agency's budget. Japan is the only other country to donate as much.
Last year, the United States and dozens of other countries walked away from an 
ITU plan that would have targeted spam and enhanced broadband access in 
developing countries, largely over a separate 
provision<http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/9/3747402/countries-propose-greater-itu-influence>
 that would have allowed governments to manage their domestic Internets more 
intensively. Free-speech advocates worried that the rule would have given 
countries such as Russia and China greater freedom to suppress politically 
sensitive content.
In response, one opposition organization launched a bid to defund the ITU. The 
North American Network Operators' Group started a White House petition in 
January, but failed to attract enough 
co-signers<https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/de-fund-itu/mSJ49QcV> to 
require a response from the Obama administration.
Pai is among the first U.S. officials to publicly sympathize with the idea. The 
next meeting of the ITU isn't until next year in Busan, South Korea. But that 
gives anti-ITU activists plenty of time to build support for the movement.
(c) The Washington Post Company


Philip S. Corwin, Founding Principal
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