Failure to
sign agreement at ITU conference stops governments having greater powers to
control phone calls and data
guardian.co.uk,
Charles Arthur, Friday 14 December 2012
 |
| People use computers at an internet cafe in Beijing. Photograph: Diego Azubel/EPA |
A proposed
global telecoms treaty that would give national governments control of the
internet has been blocked by the US and key western and African nations. They
said they are "not able to sign the agreement in its current form" at
the end of a International Telecoms Union (ITU) conference in Dubai.
The
proposals, coming after two weeks of complex negotiation, would have given
individual governments greater powers to control international phone calls and
data traffic, but were opposed as the conference had seemed to be drawing to a
close late on Thursday.
The move
seems to safeguard the role of the internet as an unregulated, international
service that runs on top of telecoms systems free of direct interference by national
governments.
The US was
first to declare its opposition to the draft treaty. "It is with a heavy
heart and a sense of missed opportunities that I have to announce that the
United States must communicate that it is unable to sign the agreement in its
current form," Terry Kramer, head of the US delegation, told the
conference, after what had looked like a final draft was approved.
"The
internet has given the world unimaginable economic and social benefit during
these past 24 years. All without UN regulation. We candidly cannot support an
ITU Treaty that is inconsistent with the multi-stakeholder model of internet
governance."
The US was
joined in its opposition by the UK, Canada, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic,
Denmark, Egypt, Kenya, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Qatar and Sweden.
All said they would not sign the proposed final text, meaning that although a
number of other countries will sign it, the treaty cannot be effectively
implemented.
"In
the end, the ITU and the conference chair, having backed themselves to the edge
of a cliff, dared governments to push them off," commented Kieren
McCarthy, who runs the internet consultancy dot-nxt. "They duly did."
But Access
Now, a lobbying group against ITU oversight of the internet, said that
"despite all of the assurances of the ITU secretariat that the WCIT
wouldn't discuss internet governance, the final treaty text contains a resolution
that explicitly 'instructs the [ITU] secretary-general to take the necessary
steps for the ITU to play and active and constructive role in... the
internet.'" It urged governments not to sign it.
The ITU is
a UN organisation responsible for coordinating telecoms use around the world.
The conference was meant to update international treaties which have not
evolved since 1988, before the introduction of the internet.
But the
conference has been the source of huge controversy because the ITU has been
accused of seeking to take control of the internet, and negotiating behind
closed doors. Google has mounted a vociferous campaign against conference
proposals that would have meant that content providers could be charged for
sending data and which would have given national governments more control of
how the internet works. Instead, lobbyists have said the treaties should simply
not mention the internet at all because it is a service that runs atop telecoms
systems.
But a bloc
led by Russia, with China and the United Arab Emirates – where the conference
is being held – said the internet should be part of the treaties because it
travels over telecoms networks. A Russia-driven vote late on Wednesday seemed
to push to include the internet in a resolution – a move the US disagreed with.
The failure
to reach accord could mean that there will be regional differences in internet
efficacy. "Maybe in the future we could come to a fragmented
internet," Andrey Mukhanov, of Russia's Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications,
told the Reuters news agency. "That would be negative for all, and I hope
our American and European colleagues come to a constructive position."
The US and
Europe have indicated that they instead want private companies to drive
internet standards.
McCarthy,
who has published ITU planning documents that would otherwise have been kept
out of sight on dot-nxt's website, criticised the conduct of the meeting:
"attendees were stunned to find a conference style and approach stuck in
the 1970s," he said.
Writing on
the dot-nxt site, he said: "A constant stream of information was available
only in downloadable Word documents; disagreement was dealt with by
increasingly small, closed groups of key government officials; voting was
carried out by delegates physically raising large yellow paddles, and counted
by staff who walked around the room; meetings ran until the early hours of the
morning, and "consensus by exhaustion" was the only fall-back
position."
Attempts by
the ITU to encourage the US to sign the proposed treaty by removing clauses –
such as one that would give individual countries rights over website addresses
– failed.
Related Article:
 |
In this
file photo dated Monday Dec. 3, 2012, participants listen
to the speech of
Hamdoun Toure, Secretary General of International
Telecommunication Union in
Dubai, United Arab Emirates.(AP Photo/
Kamran Jebreili, File) |
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