State Dept. Says It Will Fight For Internet Freedom At U.N. Telecom Conference

The State Department will advocate on behalf of Internet freedom, and oppose proposed plans by other nations to control the flow of content or turn more control of Internet technology standards to the United Nations at an upcoming U.N. conference, said U.S. ambassador Philip Verveer.

“We recognize that this is a very important conference,” Verveer said, referring to the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), a summit to be held in Dubai in December that will involve all 193 member nations of the United Nations with the aim of revising global telecom regulations, last agreed to in a 1988 treaty, well before the full commercialization and adoption of the Internet. “We’re obviously particularly averse to seeing anything significant about [Internet] content being included,” in the updates to the 1988 regulations, Verveer explained. More specifically, Verveer said that the State Department would file its own proposals for updating the international telecommunications regulations on August 3. “We don’t want to see, by any means, advertent or inadvertent outcomes to impair the Internet as we’ve come to know it, and the freedom of expression and flow of information,” Verveer said. Further, the State Department said that the questions raised by lawmakers and advocacy groups about the proposals and the WCIT-12 conference itself are “entirely congruent” with the State Department’s own approach going into the conference.