Remarks of Lawrence Strickling Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information The Media Institute

Looking ahead, debate over the future of Internet governance will once again be in the spotlight when the International Telecommunication Union meets in October for the Plenipotentiary Conference in Busan, Korea. We expect some countries may attempt to change the ITU’s mandate to give governments greater control over the Internet. I would like to make three points about these efforts.

• First, the U.S. delegation, headed by Ambassador Danny Sepulveda, will strongly oppose such efforts. And we hope and expect that the growing acceptance of the multistakeholder approach by nations, especially those in the developing world, will offer a strong rebuttal to proposals to give governments control over the Internet.
• Second, there is more at stake here than just growth and innovation. Free expression is also at risk. Nations that favor government control of the Internet tend to be countries that censor or control Internet content. For example, a Freedom House study of the voting by nations at the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) in Dubai in 2012 concluded that two-thirds of states voting for more governmental control of the Internet censor political, social or religious content within their borders.
• Third, some that have not studied the history of this issue have argued that these efforts by authoritarian governments to seek greater governmental control of the Internet were encouraged by our announcement in the spring to transition the IANA functions. That simply is not true.