US Refuses To Sign ITU Treaty Over Internet Provisions

An anonymous reader writes "The United States said today that it will not sign an international telecommunications treaty thanks to the inclusion of Internet-related provisions. According to the BBC, the U.K. and Canada have also pledged not to sign the treaty in its current form, while delegates from Denmark, the Czech Republic, Sweden, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Costa Rica, and Kenya also have reservations."

Comments

Re:Treaties

[girlintraining]

Well, not if they don't sign. That's kind of the point. If you don't sign it doesn't apply. And they won't sign. That sounds entirely reasonable.

I was referring to them backing out of, rejecting, or not acknowledging, a few dozen treaties lately, not honoring extradition requests while stealing other citizens out of their own beds in other countries without that government's consent, and withdrawing from the Geneva diplomatic conventions, etc. When you've violated so many of your own treaties (Hello, Native Americans! How 'ya doin'?) your word no longer means anything. Treaties are contracts between countries... if you don't honor them, they become meaningless.

Whether they sign or don't sign isn't the problem: It's that the signature wouldn't mean anything anyway. But I can't blame you guys for having such terminally short memories... just ask Julian Assange about international treaty law. Or did you forget about him already? :/

Re:Treaties

[girlintraining]

I think the only reason you were modded "+5 Insightful" was because of your anti-American rant, not due to actual logic.

Yes, and now I'm -1, Troll, apparently due to your pro-american rant, not due to actual logic. You missed my point -- I wasn't discussing the pros or cons of the treaty, but rather that it doesn't matter whether we sign it or not. I was mocking the idea that the United States has any diplomatic currency left to spend after we've pulled out of so many treaties and failed to sign others even when they're clearly aligned with our ideological values and would cost us nothing! We talk about how we're "world leaders" and a "beacon of hope" and the "police of the world", but it's a joke. It's total propaganda. And everybody else except the citizens here who've grown up on CNN and Fox News know that.

When I was talking about how the internet moved out of the basement 30 years ago, what I meant was that the government hasn't been directly involved in it for some time. It's already out of the control of the government -- it's being controlled by private american companies with no oversight, no laws to govern them, etc. So why would it matter if we signed the treaty or not? The government has no actual control! It'd be like me signing a contract to put you on the moon -- I have no way to deliver.