Verdens største søgemaskine går i offensiven op til stor FN-konference i december om den fremtidige regulering af det fortsat stærkt ekspanderende internet – men FN forsikrer, at intet vedtages uden at alle regeringer er enige.
Google has warned that a forthcoming UN-organised meeting threatens the “free and open internet”. At the conference in December government representatives are set to agree a new information and communications treaty, BBC online reports Tuesday.
It has been claimed some countries will try to wrest oversight of the net’s technical specifications and domain name system from US bodies to an international organisation.
However, the UN has said there would be consensus before any change was agreed.
Google has asked web users to add their name to an online petition to support its view.
“The [UN agency] International Telecommuni-cation Union (ITU) is bringing together regulators from around the world to renegotiate a decades-old communications treaty,” it wrote on its Take Action site.
“Some proposals could permit governments to censor legitimate speech – or even allow them to cut off internet access.
“Other proposals would require services like YouTube, Facebook, and Skype to pay new tolls in order to reach people across borders. This could limit access to information – particularly in emerging markets.”
Google added that it was concerned that “only governments have a voice at the ITU” and not companies or others who had a stake in the net.
However, the ITU has said that each country could invite whoever it likes to be part of its delegation at the meeting.
The ITU’s secretary general states that the growth of the internet and adoption of mobile phones meant the existing agreement – signed in 1998 – needed to be updated.
The agency is not openly publishing each government’s proposals ahead of the conference, however a site called Wcitleaks, run by researchers at George Mason University, has revealed some of the details.
Most recently these included a proposal from Russia suggesting that the US should have less control over the internet’s operation.
The ITU is hosting the conference to draw up the treaty between 3 to 14 December in Dubai.
