Kind of a no-brainer when one thinks about it

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“Pops” would refer to the following as “a solution in search of a problem” but when it is vigorously backed by the Russians it is no longer merely unnecessary but becomes a menace.

The United States will seek to block an “alarming” Russian proposal to give a United Nations telecommunications group control over the Internet, a senior State Department official said on Thursday.

“We will actively oppose the Russian proposal,” Terry Kramer, head of the U.S. delegation to a U.N. conference in Dubai, told reporters.

“I have to say, out of all the proposals that have come in, the Russian one candidly is the most shocking and most disappointing in terms of achieving the success that we are seeking globally,” he said.

A Russian government proposal to amend a U.N. treaty at a meeting of the world body’s World Conference on International Telecommunications in Dubai next week contains a provision that calls for bringing “IP-based networks” under U.N. control.

The U.N. treaty, called the International Telecommunications Regulations (ITR), is currently limited to regulating international telecommunications services.

The Russian proposal to amend the treaty has the support of other non-democratic states such as China and Iran.

One does not need a degree in telecommunications or even one in foreign policy to realize that if Russia, China and Iran are in cahoots over something, it is probably not in our best interest nor is it in the best interests of global freedom and democracy.

It’s no big surprise that the enemies of freedom would want some way of harnessing and controlling the internet as social media and the avenues of communication it provides to people is worrisome to autocratic regimes.

These bad actors know that the feckless body that is the Star Wars cantina scene can themselves be easily manipulated and controlled for their purposes. It’s the U.N. for crying out loud.


To summarize, here’s Arthur Herman from the current issue of Commentary on the dangers that U.N. control of the internet poses:

If new restrictions are codified at the conference, “In short, governance of cyberspace will pass from the country that has kept it free and accessible since its creation—the United States—to the same organization that gave us the financial scandals at UNESCO, voted to designate Zionism as racism, and seated China, Syria, and Muammur Qaddafi’s Libya on its Commission on Human Rights,” Herman wrote.

Could not have said it better ourselves