Russia is trying to set the rules for the Internet. The UN saw through the ruse.

Russia asked the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to have the group’s 193 member states “discuss the status of global governance system for … Internet domain names, addresses, and critical Internet infrastructure.” In a curt statement, the ITU said simply that it had “noted the contribution” of Russia. In other words, thanks but no thanks. Governance of the Internet operates under an improbable but wildly successful private consortium known as ICANN, which stands for Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. ICANN has been a Russian target for years. The Russian campaign against ICANN and other existing governance measures is outlined in a Jan. 19 report by the group. It notes a dozen statements by senior Russian officials over the past 18 months pressing Moscow‘s argument for a new UN treaty that would create new “rules of the road” for the Internet that would protect against what President Vladimir Putin warned in a September 2020 address were threats from “various radicals and extremists.” It’s a grotesque irony that Russia — which is among the world’s leading saboteurs of open dialogue on the Internet — is promoting itself as the new guardian of responsible Internet security. Fortunately, the telecommunications experts gathered at the ITU meeting saw through the ruse.