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US House Votes 397-0 To Oppose UN Control of the Internet
An anonymous reader writes "The U.S. House of Representatives voted 397-0 today on a resolution to oppose U.N. control of the internet. 'The 397-0 vote is meant to send a signal to countries meeting at a U.N. conference on telecommunications this week. Participants are meeting to update an international telecom treaty, but critics warn that many countries' proposals could allow U.N. regulation of the Internet.' The European Parliament passed a similar resolution a couple weeks ago, and the U.N. telecom chief has gone on record saying that freedom on the internet won't be curbed. However, that wasn't enough for U.S. lawmakers, who were quite proud of themselves for actually getting bipartisan support for the resolution (PDF). Rep Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said, 'We need to send a strong message to the world that the Internet has thrived under a decentralized, bottom-up, multi-stakeholder governance model.'"
Im not sure why but its a big thing for them to bash on and hate the UN...
I guess thats good in this rare instance?
but then again they always pass silly bills that are nothing more than symbolic.
Show them instead how good we are at curbing progress simply by unanimously opposing it! Go America!
We need to send a strong message to the world that the Internet has thrived under a decentralized, bottom-up, multi-stakeholder governance model
Isnt that what the UN is ?
UN works on consensus. Any country can veto anything.
*shudder*
What you really mean is that US politicians unanimously voted that they should have absolute control over enacting draconian restrictions on the global internet, and that those "european commies" should have any say involving red blooded american technologies and interests, and that the rhetoric about bottom up, decentralized administration is merely a red herring to keep those watchdogs distracted while they aid the henhouse.
(Spasm)
Sorry. I don't know what came over me there. Have you seen Aldus Huxley anywhere? I think I need my daily opiate injection...
An organization with an unlimited power has made a decision to keep that power, rather than parse out and distribute it to others. I've never heard anything so crazy before in my life.
Molon labe.
If only they would do this for their own attempts to regulate the Internet (think SOPA, PIPA and DMCA), the Internet would be much better off than it is today.
"In prison you just have to shut your eyes and take it. Here you have to shut your eyes and give it."
who were quite proud of themselves for actually getting bipartisan support for the resolution
Our lawmakers should be working together on everything, and the fact that they're proud of themselves for doing the job we pay them to do on a single issue shows just how messed up our system is.
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
Unless controlling the internet lets you shoot lightning bolts from your fingertips, I would not call that unlimited power.
The internet is an American product?
Except US !!
It's THEIR fucking internet after all !!
You don't like ?? Build your own !!
On the other hand, it might be the beginning of problems for people who show disrespect to religion. There are some really poorly reasoned attitudes and legislation towards free speech outside the USA. I'm not saying we're perfect, but we are better, at least in that regard.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
It's not theirs to take. It's an American product, and yeah, some of us worked on it 25 years before they noticed it was important. What next, UN control of movies, rock 'n roll and blue jeans? Don't think so.
Yeah, you might laugh now, but one day the World will say "F*** Y** USA" and create their own Internet and not allow USA on it. Build a wall around you and you will end up being alone.
A vote result that would make the worst communist dictatorships proud. Is there really so little plurality in US politics? That doesn't sound like a democracy.
Why doesn't the UN create its own internet and control that, like Iran has or intends to do?
397-0? Oh no!!!
Don't give up hope. There's still hope.
The president could issue an executive order!
A regulatory body could be set up that does it because of such body's "added benefit" of being removed from crude, crude politics.
A judge could discover changed attitudes allowing a different constitutional interpretation, doing an emd-run around the pesky amendment process!
There's still hope to give control away! FUCK OUR US DEMOCRACY ERMEHGARD!!!
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
. . . flying over the ITU meeting in Dubai.
That'll show 'em!
The ITU failed at their own attempt at creating an Internet, with ISO OSI and X.400 crap, so I can't think of anyone more qualified to totally screw up the Internet.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Most times I think demonizing the UN isn't all that useful, but after reading what this meeting is about on wired, for once I'm glad they're speaking against something. Some of the ideas from certain countries would change the internet in some pretty terrible ways.
Actually, if other countries want an internet they can control, they can roll their own. I'm OK with not being able to see North Korea's internet.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
Why yes, it is. http://bit.ly/s57NL9
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
The "Do Nothing" Congress did something by asking the ITU meeting to do nothing. I think they found their niche.
more than giving the UN the finger.
They voted against it for the same reason Iraq had no terrorism prior to 2003 - iron-fisted tinpot authoritarians abhor competition.
Isn't it obvious?
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
It's a completely american product. The US Department of Commerce controlled it almost completely until 1998, when it turned over most routine administrative tasks to a non-profit organization, ICANN. The DoC still maintains administrative oversight and control of the root name servers.
Congressmen/women are just really voting for themselves controlling it rather than the UN. Our congress hasn't show stellar stamina is supporting a free internet at every opportunity. Both sides of the aisle have proposed, supported or voted for something that took control away from individuals at some point.
I've always said English was my second language. Had Romeo and Juliet been written in C, I might have understood it.
I would actually be quite impressed if you could pull that off. Somehow, i think it is unlikely.
Good-bye
Other than using our subs and divers to cut the cables or use the embedded kill codes on the satellites, it really doesn't matter what the US thinks about it.
The Internet was designed to reroute around damage.
Any damage.
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MSNBC reports that Republicans are blocking UN, and Democrats support Freedom!
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Internet 1: the current system, run on IPv4.
Internet 2: a UN controlled system, with lots of corporate and corrupt govt control, run on identifiable IPv6.
and finally
Internet 3: the fast internet, the one with all the privacy and goodness rolled in, run on IPv6SECmod5 with mask anonymizers but such clearly identified as "anonymous" so we can filter them out ourselves.
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Holy hell. There hasn't been that much bipartisanship since the great "Lyke-dis-if-u-crie-evry-tyme Act of 1897".
To all you virgins: Thanks for nothing.
Nov. 23, Slashdot largely approves when the EU makes a similar statement opposing ITU control.
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/11/23/0122212/eu-passes-resolution-against-itu-asserting-control-over-internet
Two days ago, a submission points out differences in the words and actions of the ITU and its Secretary General (including a plan to try to undercut any opposition via flooding social media) and most who reply are quite skeptical of the ITU.
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/12/03/2120250/internet-freedom-wont-be-controlled-says-un-telcom-chief
Today, the House votes unanimously to say largely the same thing as the EU. The reaction on slashdot? Outrage at the horrible undercutting of freedom, the ITU and the UN in particular.
Truly who says something counts far more here than what is said.
This is hysterical.
That almost sounds like a copyright term extension act!
You mean the UN will try to control the heartland of movies? Mumbai?
Exactly, so china wants paper and gunpowder back.
That was fifteen years ago. The majority of "the Internet" is now in other countries, and internet service in many countries is significantly better than it is in the U.S.
Exactly, so china wants paper and gunpowder back.
So long as we get to keep repeating crossbows, I'm ok with that.
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so?? that changes nothing. If they dont like it, they can make their own "internet" if not, than play by our rules
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
I'm definitely not shocked by this vote. The U.S. Will remain as neutral as possible all while secretly funding any country/ militant group willing to do the U.S.'s bidding. I feel like a majority of my countrymen have fallen pray to being arrogant and selfish. This didn't happen overnight the system in place for the U.S. Is highly effective @ keeping the majority calm and docile.Once a population becomes docile then it is easier to work them into a fervor getting permission to do anything a country wants. Protect free and open internet at all costs!!! Look deeper folks we are fighting to keep an open internet while the true objective is thought control. An open and free mind is the most dangerous thing. If we as humans give up the right for open internet then we are giving away our human right to freedom of thought.
"An organism at war with itself is certainly doomed"
Sounds like a vendor lock-in to me. The US being the vendor, that is.
The AMT patch expired in 2011, and if the AMT is not fixed by December 31st, 28 million households will have to pay an average of $3700 in additional taxes for tax year 2012 - due in April.
And they're taking valuable time to tell the UN to fuck off... when they should be dealing with the mess they created.
You can't control the Internet. That's our job! --- US Congress
I smell something fishy - i bet it's those other big totalitarian countries (ie: China, Russia, etc) that are pushing for this. Im from OZ and dont necessarily love the USA - but compared to those guys, i'd settle for the USA (maybe lesser evil) who has always cared about freedom.
On the one hand, every human with political power wants to manipulate the Internet in whatever way yields more power, which means NOT SHARING that power with anyone else. All the posturing about freedom is just there to win hearts and minds. The truth is simple, "this is ours, and it is awesome, and we aren't sharing. Period."
On the other hand, it really is our Internet. That is to say, America's Internet. We built it. The companies that administer it were founded by Americans in America and still operate in America. Just because we allow foreign countries to hook up to it does not mean we are suddenly obligated to cede control of it. It is still ours. If the foreign countries don't like, they don't have to play. Absolutely nothing is preventing the foreign countries from forming their own Internet under their own rules, and requiring their citizens to use it instead of the American Internet.
Well, nothing apart from the fact that nobody would actually use it. Or at least very few. Their rules would make it suck so bad that all businesses would be driven away, and the lack of commerce would ensure that all potential clients would be driven away, and they know it. So, since they can't have something as awesome as what we have, but have it their way, they want to take ours away from us and ruin it.
Well, fuck 'em.
Are you trolling, or do you just not understand how the Internet works? They don't need to "make their own internet." Do you think that their traffic goes through the U.S.? That would be really expensive! They already _have_ their own internet, and all the services you are accustomed to using here in the U.S. would remain if they severed ties with us—Google would keep working, Spotify would keep working, iTunes would keep working, Amazon would keep working, Skype would keep working. Slashdot might go off the air, but that's about it. They can just ignore us, and let us disconnect our part of the internet from theirs if we want. But of course this will never happen.
Please realize that politicians only lie because they have to. People do not vote for the politicians that tell the truth. Nor do people vote for politicians that only make promises they can keep.
While it is true that power-hungry sociopaths are attracted to the job of governance, the reason so many such people actually get the job is because they are the only ones that people actually vote for. And anyone who is not a deceitful dirtbag becomes one pretty quickly (or gets voted out of office), by necessary reaction to voter demand.
Political deceit is just the symptom. The disease is voter stupidity (and the anti-intellectual sentiment that drives it).
Never? That's an awfully long time. Do you think the US will remain the worlds big brother for all of forever?
Would the chinese premier and the cabinet vote for dissolution of the party and losing their jobs?
100% no.
Would the USA want to lose their power?
100% no.
Colour me unsuprised.
It doesn't really matter in practice whether it is a US or UN body that controls this; it is mostly symbolic, although my sympathies lie with the UN. If at any point the rest of the world gets tired enough of the status quo, they will find another way - hasn't that always been the case? ICANN only has any power because they have done the job well enough, but DNS is like a phone book - you can go and use an alternative if you prefer. So far the benefits of using ICANN have outweighed the costs, that's all.
And for the same reasons, it is nonsense to go on about how it would be a huge blow to freedom or whatever, if UN took over, because somehow Iran would then have enormous influence. As far as I can see, this is no more than what Freud called castration anxiety: the irrational fear that the US would lose her manhood (hmm, there is something not quite comforting about the associations this invokes).
I work for the UN. They are too incompetent to run the Internet.
"Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people's brains..."
Would he go to the German one?
No.
Therefore the embassies of countries are NOT a place to talk so they might not war on one another.
Would any nation which invented an amazing technology hand it over to potential economic and/or military opponents? You all live in a Pollyanish world. How many of you trust the Communist Chinese? Yes the ones that have stolen technology from American and European companies?
Actually, I'm also a Canadian.
I wasn't describing customs, or the farce which is TSA (which doesn't even work), just the likelihood that taking your laptop to China means the intelligence services will install spyware on it.
They wait until you go to sleep.
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Who has a 'Human Rights Council' with members like Saudi Arabia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Cuba, and China. Where states like Sudan and Zimbabwe routinely get to block any action on their own atrocities, where the bodies precursor, United Nations Commission on Human Rights, was chaired by such a celebrated champion of human rights as Libya.
I'm all for the cynical view on American politicians, but do you really think it's a good idea to hand authority of the Internet over to an organization like that? Are you totally out of your minds?
a lot hinges on what you mean by 'control'. The same control as the US exercises today? More? Root name servers only? ICANN functions? And so on...
My representative can't even put the palmade on his 50s Repuglican hairdo without assistance.
The UN couldn't control the internet any better than anyone else does anyway. I need to get my Amateur Radio License...
rather than US