FCC’s McDowell: Internet Is Under Assault and Inaction Is Not an Option

Federal Communications Commission member Robert McDowell will testify before Congress on February 5 and plans to say that the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) telecom treaty conference in Dubai in December marked the end of international consensus on keeping government hands off the Internet, instead "radically ratcheting up" even more regulation.

"[I]n 2011, then-Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin summed it up best when he declared that his goal, and that of his allies, was to establish 'international control over the Internet' through the ITU," says Commissioner McDowell. "Last month in Dubai, Putin largely achieved his goal." Talking about the forces being applied to that "one-way ratchet, he said: "Proponents of multilateral intergovernmental control of the Internet are patient and persistent incrementalists who will never relent until their ends are achieved." Commissioner McDowell is already looking ahead, and sees the 2014 plenipotentiary meeting of the ITU as both a threat and an opportunity. "While we debate what to do next, Internet freedom's foes around the globe are working hard to exploit a treaty negotiation that dwarfs the importance of the WCIT by orders of magnitude. In 2014, the ITU will conduct what is literally a constitutional convention [that] will define the ITU's mission for years to come."