Pfanner, Eric. "Debunking Rumors of an Internet Takeover." The New York Times, June 11, 2012.
From article: "This just in from Geneva: The United Nations has no plans to
seize control of the Internet. The Web-snatching black helicopters have not
left the hangar.
Internet conspiracy theorists will be disappointed. The latest one, fueled
by “open Internet” groups, Internet companies like Google and some U.S.
lawmakers, was that mouse-clicking bureaucrats at U.N. headquarters in Geneva,
supported by governments suspicious of the United States, were scheming to take
over the Internet itself.
The plot went something like this: At a meeting in December of an obscure
U.N. agency called the International Telecommunication Union, Russia, China and
their ilk would try to wrest oversight of the Internet away from the loose
collection of public and private organizations that do the job now, handing
this responsibility to the I.T.U. All sorts of bad things, from censorship to
the breakup of the Internet, would ensue…. Time for a reality check. Documents
prepared for the December meeting, which leaked out last week — yes, on the
Internet — show that there are no proposals to hand governance of the Net to
the I.T.U. The union insists that it has no desire to play such a role. And
even if some governments would like to give the agency increased regulatory
powers, the United States and other like-minded countries could easily block
them." Read more
