I just found an article that scares the living daylights out of me. Apparently sometime in December, the UN is having a meeting to renegotiate a communications treaty with regulators from around the world. Google is asking for web users to sign a petition. Apparently it seems this meeting consists of only government members and not business corporations like Google.
Some of the proposals include the following as per BBC News:
"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, concluding that the World Conference on International Telecommunications (Wcit) was "the wrong place" to make decisions about the internet's future.
Apparently there were also some documents that were leaked and in one document it stated:
"Member states shall have equal rights to manage the internet, including in regard to the allotment, assignment and reclamation of internet numbering, naming, addressing and identification resources and to support for the operation and development of basic internet infrastructure," it said in a document submitted on 17 November.
or in other words...
the US should have less control over the internet's operation.
Two of the countries who seemed to want this are Russia and China. I don't know about you, but I would really worry about another country having control of my country's internet.
________________________
Tolled Traffic another suggestion is the paying of a 'toll' by popular websites to developing nations if a lot of traffice is sent through their data networks. So if something like this goes through, we might eventually see the advent of paying to use a search engine.
"Many countries are used to getting revenue from telephone calls, and those telephone calls have gone away in favour of various internet-based video services which don't produce revenue for them," Gary Shapiro, president of the US's Consumer Electronics Association, told the BBC.
"So they are looking to recover it and they are trying to put a charge on incoming internet access. So if you have a website which is very popular worldwide you would have to pay to get access to them - we think that is wrong.
In my opinion there are those who will be able to afford to pay for internet services, but there will be a whole slew of us who are not going to be able to afford to pay for those services and will lose a valuable resourse for fun, knowledge, and learning. The internet should be open to all not just to those who can afford it. It has become a way of life and many a school require the use of the internet in their studies - not just colleges but grade schools and high schools, too.
I enjoy the opportunies the internet provides. I enjoy the fact that I can share things on Newsvine. I foresee if something like government control completely takes over the internet, we will see censureship like we have never see before. The articles says that all have to be in agreement before a ruling can become legal, but as with other rulings, they have a way to metomorph into something that we all regret.
Please take the time to sign Google's petition. You don't have to give away all this personal information to do so. Our free Internet is at stake.
Thank you.
____________________
This article "Internet Control by the UN - Something We Should Really Worry About" was authored by ©PonGoad 2012. All Rights Reserved.
