Oft-Divided House Still United Against ITU-Centric Net Governance

House Commerce Committee members took turns speaking in support of a resolution calling on the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to resist imposing a top-down government model for Internet governance.

The resolution is one of five bills being marked up in the committee on June 20. Several legislators spoke in stark terms of a potential United Nations takeover of the 'net. But it is not only the Hill that is concerned that at an upcoming treaty conference in Dubai in December -- the World Conference on International Telecommunications -- some of the 193 members, led by Russia and China, will be proposing extending ITU's oversight of international phone traffic, to Internet traffic. Both the FCC and the White House agree a multistakeholder model should be preserved.