CQ WEEKLY – IN FOCUS
June 2, 2012 – 2:11 p.m.
Hands-Off Approach: Congress Balks at U.N. Oversight of Internet
By Ambreen Ali, CQ Staff
Rarely do both political parties completely agree with the White House, but an international threat to the Internet appears to do the trick.
In recent weeks, lawmakers have echoed concerns raised by the Obama administration that Russia, China and others may try to regulate the Internet through a branch of the United Nations.
Top legislators on the House Energy and Commerce Committee momentarily set aside partisan wrangling last week to introduce a bipartisan resolution demanding that the U.S. delegation to an upcoming conference of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) “promote a global Internet free from government control.”
The ITU’s 193 member states are set to meet in Dubai in December to update global telecom regulations, and several proposals on the table could allow governments to exert control over the Web.
Lawmakers have been monitoring the talks leading up to the December World Conference on International Telecommunications, especially after Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested last year that the ITU — which was originally set up to regulate telegraph lines and now manages radio frequencies and satellite allocations — should expand its reach to the Internet.
Industry groups, Congress and the White House agree that it’s a bad idea. Under the current process that governs the Internet, non-governmental organizations oversee its management and ensure that it is free of political influence. Allowing governments to have a say in how the Internet is controlled could allow autocratic regimes to further censor the Web and control Internet-fueled uprisings such as the Arab Spring.
“If this happens, I fear that the next Arab Spring will instead become the Russian Winter where free speech is chilled,” California Republican Rep.
At the proceeding, members applauded federal officials for fighting the regulatory proposals and urged them to remain vigilant in ensuring that autocratic regimes do not exert control over the Internet.
“I think we can all agree that the adoption of these principles is a very serious threat to the free, transparent and open Internet as we know it today,” Rep.
Ambassador Philip L. Verveer, who coordinates U.S. international communications policy for the State Department, reassured lawmakers that the administration is taking the issue seriously and plans to make sure that the Dubai conference focuses instead on telecom issues such as roaming and fraud. Joining him on the panel was Federal Communications Commissioner Robert M. McDowell, a Republican who has closely followed the matter.
“Allow me to dispense quickly and emphatically any doubts about the bipartisan resolve of the United States to resist efforts to expand the ITU’s authority over Internet matters,” McDowell said. “We are unified on the substantive arguments and have always been so.”
What’s less clear is how potent a threat there really is to the Internet. Despite Putin’s comments, Verveer acknowledged that the ITU is unlikely to advance any proposal to directly exert control over the Web. Japan, Canada, Mexico and most European countries have backed the U.S. in resisting efforts to regulate the Internet.
“The majority of ITU members agree with us in this regard,” Verveer said. “There are no pending proposals to vest the ITU with direct Internet governance authority.”
Hands-Off Approach: Congress Balks at U.N. Oversight of Internet
Backdoor Control
Still, several other issues likely to come up during the Dubai meeting could create backhanded ways for countries to control online data and users.
“The lethal threat to the Internet may not come from a full frontal assault, but through insidious and seemingly innocuous expansions of intergovernmental powers,” McDowell said.
ITU officials and member states are discussing ways to address the shortage of phone numbers, which has been fueled in part by the rise of Voice over Internet Protocol (IP) services, such as Google Voice and Skype, that redirect a phone number to an IP address. McDowell said the Russian Federation has proposed giving the ITU control over IP addresses so it can tackle the problem, a power that would enable Russia and others to regulate services.
Another suggestion, by Arab states, is to expand the definition of telecom to include processing and computer functions, a change McDowell said would “essentially swallow the Internet’s functions with only a tiny edit to existing rules.”
China has proposed registering users with their IP addresses as a way to strengthen cybersecurity, a move critics say would allow the censorship-prone nation to silence dissidents.
The House plans to advance its resolution in the coming months, while a similar initiative by Florida Republican
A congressional resolution may strengthen the U.S. delegation’s hand as it tries to squash any Internet-related provisions at the ITU, but the FCC’s McDowell warned that some countries will continue to look for opportunities to rein in the Web.
“This is just the latest vignette in this drama,” he said. “We have to remain vigilant.”
FOR FURTHER READING:
The House resolution is