Ambassador: Web treaty plans pushed by Iran, China could lead to censorship

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US Ambassador Terry Kramer warned that countries like China and Iran are looking to propose troublesome language for a telecommunications treaty that could lead to online censorship and government monitoring of Web traffic.

The countries say those proposals are intended to protect computer networks from malicious spam and crack down on online child pornography, but the methods they suggest to accomplish this via the treaty would allow them to see "what information is flowing on the Internet," including what people are doing and saying on the Web, Kramer said at an event hosted by Johns Hopkins University's Center for Transatlantic Relations. "There are a variety of non-democratic nations that are seeking to put some content restrictions out there, that are saying they want to know how traffic flows," said Kramer, who is heading up the U.S. delegation for the upcoming treaty conference in Dubai this December. He said these cybersecurity proposals initially look innocuous, but upon a second look, they propose to broaden the scope of the treaty so it shifts from regulating telecommunications networks to regulating information online.


Ambassador: Web treaty plans pushed by Iran, China could lead to censorship