Is a UN Internet takeover looming? Not quite

Perhaps you saw or heard the headlines last Friday or over the weekend: the United Nations could take over the Internet! (Or, as the Drudge Report put it, "UN PLANS INTERNET REGULATION.") This, you may not be surprised to learn, isn't quite accurate.

A UN working group is currently talking about what, if anything, it could do to improve the operation of its Internet Governance Forum (IGF), a group devoted to dialogue but possessing no decision-making powers. In May 2010, the UN's Commission on Science and Technology (CSTD) decided that the IGF could be improved after its initial five-year run. It called for a new working group that would "seek, compile and review inputs from all Member States and all other stakeholders on improvements to the Internet Governance Forum (IGF)." No problem there, really, but when CSTD actually assembled the working group in early December, only governments were on the list. The fear here is clear (try saying that three times fast): an IGF overhaul committee made up only of governments might get some very government-friendly ideas, such as that IGF should get more power and should serve as a forum for deciding on issues like Internet crime and security, without the involvement of ISPs, Internet companies, and nonprofit civil society groups.