Virtual Line In The Sand

[Flashermac]

A little-known group has just ended a secretive international conference that tried to undermine free speech, particularly on the internet.

 

Thailand was among 144 countries attending the World Conference on International Telecommunications in Dubai held by the very quiet, little known International Telecommunication Union, or ITU. WCIT-12, known to delegates as "wicket 12", discussed heatedly whether to put worldwide checks on speech and technology of the internet. The would-be controllers failed, but they will try again next year, at "wicket 13" in Bangkok.

 

A good thing happened at the Dubai conference. Fifty-five of the attending countries took a principled stand. Instead of following the usual practice of a UN conference and voting for a watered-down "compromise", the 55 countries rejected entirely even a discussion of principles like freedom of speech, international control of internet companies like Google and Facebook, UN-directed taxes on internet use, and control of internet resources.

 

The largely repressive governments pushing for such authorisation - particularly China, Russia and an Arab bloc - tried to get the UN's foot in the door. The 55 opponents refused. The US helped to stiffen resistance, but those who voted against any such control efforts included countries as diverse as India, Japan and Australia. Laos and Myanmar did not attend the conference and while other Asean nations signed the ITU pact, the Philippines refused.

 

The documents on offer at Dubai were drawn up over the past two years at secret ITU and UN meetings. The public never was allowed to comment, nor were the main Dubai sessions open to the media or public. Leaks showed sneaky attempts to stifle freedom on the internet. One proposal sounded so innocent, calling for countries to fight junk posts and and email spam - a fine sentiment until it was obvious that the sponsoring governments will decide what is junk, and they want international backing for their repression of, say, critical bloggers and tweeters.

 

Thai officials, mostly from the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology tried to have it both ways. They signed the final statement of the conference. But then they issued a curious, one-page statement that essentially rejected the ITU pact. The post-signing reservation by Thailand said essentially that the country and government would not be bound by anything in the ITU agreement, and has no intention of applying any of the provisions in the foreseeable future.

 

This is what Thai delegates should have said at the conference itself, and stood with the democratic minority against the insidious ITU document. For months before the conference, the Internet Society of Thailand, many activist groups and key business organisations all urged the government to refrain from signing any conference documents.

 

WCIT-13 will be held late next year in Bangkok. As hosts, Thailand will have a special obligation to understand the issues and conduct the conference business. By then, one hopes even government bureaucrats will recognise the inherent danger of giving up or compromising on protected, precious national freedoms including free speech. As chairman of next year's "wicket 13", it is not too early for Thailand to start now to ensure no group or country can raise such anti-democratic issues as cutting off free speech.

 

 

http://www.bangkokpo...ine-in-the-sand

[Coss]

Seems typical of the LOS Govt representatives every time they interact with the rest of the world.

 

"I agree with you and all the rules (but I'm not going to observe any of the rules I've just agreed to)"

[huumlaar]

Not a little known conference to me or my working colleagues, we had hourly de-briefs of events as they unfolded, and it's nothing like the Bangkok Post reporting, a lot of things get hidden in these events, but some key points are the USA wants to keep the Internet "Free and Open" in a USA libertarian concept, while other countries, now that the Internet is growing beyond being housed in the USA want more control over their own backyards, and are worried of intrusion by the USA, which it says is worried about the same by Russia and China, and to confuse things further, companies like Google etc love to hide behind the banner of "Lets keep it free and open" which means they can earn nearly a billion dollars on advertising etc in countries like Australia but pay less than $100 000 in tax.

 

Don't believe the hype - both sides walked away really achieving nothing much at all.

 

A good blog on it that someone sent me, love the Google line. hadn't seen that before till just now, but it matches the other reports I heard,

 

Eric Schmidt’s proud declaration(“Google’s Tax Avoidance is called Capitalism and I’m proud of itâ€) see the first link

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/9739039/Googles-tax-avoidance-is-called-capitalism-says-chairman-Eric-Schmidt.html#

 

http://gurstein.wordpress.com/2012/12/15/wcit-lots-of-losers-but-guess-who-won/

 

Good link with someone with understanding on the ITU

[huumlaar]

I strongly suggest you use this version of google next time you want to search though.

 

Very useful

 

www.google.com

[TheCorinthian]

I strongly suggest you use this version of google next time you want to search though.

 

Very useful

 

www.google.com really >>> http://www.replacementgoogle.com/

 

How much do you make from that spoofed link?

[huumlaar]

Nothing, not mine, I only found it was listed in the Telegraph story about Google, along with 9 other spoof sites,

 

it's just good fun, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/9740063/Ten-best-Google-parody-websites.html

 

Google does have a sense of humour you know . . . . . .