United Nations Agency to Discuss Internet Governance Again

Only five months ago, at a treaty conference convened by a United Nations agency called the International Telecommunication Union, the U.S. delegation stormed out, refusing to sign the proposed document, saying it posed a threat to the current, decentralized Internet governance system. Several dozen other countries joined the boycott. The telecommunication union has always insisted that the treaty, which it is still lobbying holdout governments to sign, had nothing to do with the Internet, even though pretty much everyone else in Dubai seemed to think it did. Beginning May 13, the agency can make no such protestations about a meeting it is convening in Geneva. The stated topic of the World Telecommunication Policy Forum is, yes, Internet governance. On the agenda are issues like the expansion of broadband access and the adoption of the IPv6 protocol for Internet addresses. But it doesn’t look like the telecommunications union is planning an Internet land grab; one of six draft “opinions” prepared for the meeting urges support for “multistakeholderism in Internet governance.” That is jargon for the current sharing of duties among a variety of acronym-rich groups with representation from government, the private sector and non-governmental organizations. This time around there will be no treaty, but the opinions are intended to help set the agenda for a plenipotentiary meeting of the telecommunications union next year — which, given the fireworks in Dubai, promises to be a doozy.