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Over the past fortnight, the internet has been awash with debate over the future of the internet: the UN, so the stories went, was planning to change the governance of the internet for good. Predictably, the UK and US have point-blank refused to play ball and that has stopped the proceedings dead.
We took the time the other week to explain why people didn’t need to worry about the UN initiative:
So what’s going to happen? Nothing. Nothing is going to happen. Passage of any of the, again, over 900 proposals on the table will require a “consensus,” which means more than a majority vote. Good luck getting 193 countries to agree on something that has to do with freedom of speech, money, regulation, and American Imperialism.
And let’s say, hypothetically, the world reached a consensus on one of these 900 proposals. Let’s say that it was even a huge one-stripping control of Internet domains away from ICANN and giving to the United Nations. Then what? Nothing. The ITU has no enforcement mechanism. In other words, it has no way to make anyone do anything.
And guess what happened? Nothing! While the likes of Russia, China and Saudi Arabia were pushing hard for change, there were plenty of other countries that were unsure or dead against it. The UK, Canada and the US in particular were fiercely opposed to rewriting internet regulations. The revolution won’t be televised, not even on YouTube — because there won’t be one. [BBC]
Image by nrkbeta under Creative Commons license
I see that this (and now the US Gizmodo article) have been edited to remove the bit about Canada and the UK being the US’s “lapdogs”.
Would have liked to have seen the original. Got a screeny?
I don’t, no. It was changed between the time the US Gizmodo posting the article and the UK repost. I was waiting to see if the UK team here changed it at all. When I went back after reading this one the US one had been changed too. The Google cached page is the also updated one.
Basically, the sentence that reads “Predictably, the US has point-blank refused to play ball—along with Canada and the UK—and that stops proceeding dead.” originally said, “Predictably, the US has point-blank refused to play ball—along with their lapdogs Canada and the UK—and that stops proceeding dead.”
We may be lapdogs but it’s always possible we’re merely poised to bite their nuts off.
“Russia, China and Saudi Arabia were pushing hard for change”
I’d have been more impressed by this non story if we hadn’t opposed something put forward by these outstanding examples of free speech and democratic values.
mmm… read this, but am no wiser
[ actually, am unwiser. am now aware of a new something but don't know anything about it. except people r taking sides ]