The International Telecoms Union, the United Nations’ agency for information and communications technology, failed to draw consensus on bringing each country’s Internet regulations under the international community’s control.
As Internet traffic has far surpassed telephone use, regulatory powers ― including taxation of cross-border cyber traffic, censorship and network neutrality ― have become key issues.
The ITU hosted this year’s World Conference on International Telecommunications in Dubai between Dec. 3 and Dec. 14 to vote on proposals on updating ITRs, or international telecoms regulations.
The delegates reached consensus on traditional issues, such as improving transparency in roaming rates and callers’ identification, without much trouble.
But relatively new issues, including Internet and mobile management, sparked sharp clashes, with only 89 of the 151 participating countries signing the final agreement.
The ITU voted on a proposal to make Internet regulation subject to the ITU controls and not individual states as it is currently, with all U.N. member countries given an equal vote.
More than 20 countries countries, headed by the United States and the United Kingdom, opposed the idea, claiming that putting Internet regulation to an international vote may lead to unwarranted censorship and therefore undermine freedom of expression.
These countries ― including the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Australia ― refused to vote in the final agreement on Internet regulation.
Some countries refused to vote for a different reason. Chile, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Italy, Kenya, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Portugal declared that they would have to consult their domestic governments before signing the agreement.
Countries including China, Russia and Saudi Arabia strongly supported the proposal, insisting that online censorship and authority to block destructive Internet materials was necessary for national security.
These countries also claimed that Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN ― a nonprofit corporation that assigns all online addresses based in the U.S. ― should be apolitical.
Korea and some other European Union member countries held neutral stances although they signed the final agreement on ITU’s Internet regulation.
The Korea Communications Commission said Sunday that while the proposal did not reach a consensus this time, it would be brought up again in other international conferences such as the 2013 Global Cyber Space Conference in Seoul and ITU’s 2014 WCIT to be held in Busan.
