Civil Society is Key to the Debate on International Control Over the Internet

[Commentary] Civil society will be the critical player in a policy debate that has dominated recent tech news - whether the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) will be given the power by its Member States to regulate internet access and the internet itself.

Despite the fact that the US Government and US industry have vocally opposed this outcome, it is US civil society that has the biggest role to play to ensure that the Internet continues to be open and decentralized. The ITU is a United Nations agency focused on setting international standards related to information and communications technologies – and whose stated mission is to connect all the world’s people “wherever they live and whatever their means.” Among other things, the ITU allocates global radio spectrum, and coordinates the assignment of satellite orbits. What’s all the fuss? The ITU and its 193 Member States (including the US) and approximately 700 “Sector Members” will meet this December in Dubai at the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) to update the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs), a treaty to which all Member States are signatories. But it will take more than jawboning by civil society groups here to stop the threat of an ITU takeover. US civil society (and by extension the US Government) must acknowledge the concerns of countries that believe that the US has too much control over Internet governance, and must address those concerns without giving control of the Internet to the ITU. Insisting that anything less than the status quo will lead to an ITU takeover is both untrue and ultimately self-defeating.