DUBAI/SAN FRANCISCO, (Reuters) – An attempt by national governments to establish a worldwide policy for oversight of the Internet collapsed yesterday after many Western countries said a compromise plan gave too much power to United Nations and other officials.
Delegates from the United States, UK, Australia and other countries took the floor on the next to last day of a UN conference in Dubai to reject revisions to a treaty governing international phone calls and data traffic.
“It’s with a heavy heart and a sense of missed opportunities that the U.S. must communicate that it’s not able to sign the agreement in the current form,” said Terry Kramer, the U.S. ambassador to the gathering of the UN’s International Telecommunication Union.
While other countries will sign the treaty today, the absence of so many of the largest economies means that the document, already watered down to suit much of the West, will have little practical force. “It will bring some legal concerns between countries that have and haven’t signed the treaty,” said a South American delegate who declined to be identified.
Though technologists who had raised alarms about the proceedings preferred no deal to one that would have legitimized more government censorship and surveillance, the failure to reach an accord could increase the chance that the Internet will work very differently in different regions.
