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Russia and China Withdraw Bid For Internet Control

Posted by samzenpus on from the on-second-thought dept.

judgecorp writes "Russia, China and other nations have withdrawn proposals to take control over the Internet within their borders. The proposals, handed to the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) on Friday, caused widespread dismay and protest. The WCIT event in Dubai, run by the UN agency ITU, is working on new International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs) which are due for their first revision since the emergence of the mass Internet. The line-up of nations wanting to formalize their power to restrict the Internet included Russia, China, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Sudan and Egypt. Their proposal has been withdrawn without explanation, an ITU spokesperson confirmed."

16 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. Uh oh by Jetra · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think our "friends" may have learned some tricks from here in America. Prepare for drafts with a lot of double-speak that is going to be pushed quickly and with as little media attention as possible.

    1. Re:Uh oh by dintech · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "The global body didn't let us do what we wanted so we're just going to fucking go our own way anyway."
      Looks like they learned from the WMD/Iraq War debacle...

  2. Withdrawn without explanation by the+grace+of+R'hllor · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So in exchange for shutting up about it, they'll probably get it officiously, thanks to nations who also want full control but didn't formally ask for it (ie, all of them?).

    Or am I being paranoid?

    1. Re:Withdrawn without explanation by mwvdlee · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Do they really have to ask, as long as it's within their borders?
      If they wish to break the internet within their own borders, who will be able to stop them?

      --
      Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
    2. Re:Withdrawn without explanation by vlm · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Do they really have to ask, as long as it's within their borders?

      Extradition treaties. You live in .us and uploaded a wedding picture of your wife showing bare ankles to facebook? Hopefully the religious authorities in Afghanistan will be lenient with your extradited there for punishment ... all in exchange for other countries extraditing I.P. violators to the USA.

      --
      "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
    3. Re:Withdrawn without explanation by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's nice that America exports Democracy, but I'd say they should at least keep a little bit for themselves, I notice a shortage.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  3. Close shave by Twinbee · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It'll be a very long time before world peace is achieved, but this news may have potentially cut that time by decades or even centuries.

    Language, currency and cultures often divide us, but the internet is one of the things unified in this world. Long may it stay that way.

    --
    Why OpalCalc is the best Windows calc
    1. Re:Close shave by SJHillman · · Score: 5, Informative

      Peace means more than just "no major wars"

      Wikipedia has a nice list of conflicts that are still ongoing (be it cold, warm or hot conflicts): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ongoing_military_conflicts

      And just stay tuned, more are sure to come!

    2. Re:Close shave by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Informative

      There are definitely some nasty little meatgrinders going on(and, depending on how exactly you want to tot them up, a fair amount of violence-application by internal security forces whose targets are mostly too outmatched for it to even count as 'conflict'); but by historical standards that's pretty good.

      The Syrian civil war, for instance, killed about as many people, per year, as motor vehicle accidents do in the US(the US population is higher, obviously, so the individual risk of death is lower).

  4. The Pattern by ios+and+web+coder · · Score: 4, Insightful

    1) Make a huge noise about implementing draconian measures.

    2) Withdraw these measures after the hue and cry.

    3) Propose more "reasonable" measures that will, after the dust settles, actually end up giving more control.

    This is how our gas prices keep going up. They jack the prices up by a dollar, then back down 80 cents. Repeat as necessary.

    --

    "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."

    -H. L. Mencken

    1. Re:The Pattern by kilfarsnar · · Score: 3, Informative

      "they?" A Conspiracy!! Yep, that's it, numerous oil companies, some nationalized and some privatized, shipping companies, refiners, governments, etc. all got together and decided that you needed to have higher prices, and kept the manipulation secret...those sneaky bastards. You know, the Sun keeps rising and falling in the sky....a Conspiracy!!

      Right, because price fixing never happens and every bad act is eventually found out. No one ever gets away with anything, and the Authorities are always on the up and up. How could it be otherwise? After all, wealthy powerful people usually come to and maintain their power through honesty and transparency.

      Really, there is no conspiracy necessary for those with like interests to work together to forward those interests. It's quite natural. However, contrary to your insinuation, conspiracies do happen and some are actually kept secret. It's really not that hard. The people involved just have to all benefit from the secret. If you were making billions of dollars through some conspiracy, why on earth would you ever tell anyone?

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
  5. translation by slashmydots · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Mommy, the other countries laughed at us and made fun of our idea!"

  6. Re:The breakup is coming by invid · · Score: 3, Funny

    If humanity can't survive the free flow of information and has to limit it, it will be out-competed by an extraterrestrial civilization that can. (I'm talking long term, like million years)

    --
    The Moore-Murphy Law: The number of things that will go wrong will double every 2 years.
  7. Summary is biased by Dan+East · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This summary is slanted and biased: "proposals to take control over the Internet within their borders". The text "within their borders" has been added by the submitter - the word "border" isn't even in the document that text links to.

    Countries already have control over the internet "within their borders", just like they have control over everything else within their borders. They were seeking control *outside* their borders, to force outside companies to have to pay them to deliver content. What these countries are wanting (among other things) is the ability to force content producers, like Google's YouTube, to have to pay their ISPs in order to be able to deliver content at a "quality" level to their citizens.

    In other words, there are countries that want the US to have to pay them so their population can consume content created by the US. If Google deems it wise to invest in a country's infrastructure so that more people in that country can (for example) watch YouTube videos at a certain level of quality, then that's Google's prerogative. They shouldn't be forced.

    --
    Better known as 318230.
  8. The USA is not perfect but.... by cryfreedomlove · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The cast of countries that submitted this proposal all share a common trait of disrespecting the freedom of expression of their own citizens. This disrespect is rooted in fear. These governments see their own citizenry as a threat to their own power, especially if those citizens can read anything they want on the global internet.

  9. They already have control, of themselves by Kludge · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I really don't get all this "control of the internet" hoopla. The reality is that anyone can run a DNS server. These countries can run one of their own if they don't like ours. They can also put whatever firewall they choose on the lines going in and out of their countries. They already have as much control as they choose to have. What is the point of having some international governing body? I'm not getting it.