Multiple countries have refused to sign a United Nations International Telecommunication Union (ITU) treaty, with Australia and Canada joining Great Britain and the U.S in refusal to sign at a recent World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) conference in Dubai.
2015 will see the arrival of a new ITU treaty that will replace the current (outdated) treaty that was put into place way back in 1988. This comes as a setback for the U.N as the countries that refused to sign are amongst the largest telecommunications powers on the planet.
The U.N were forced to deny allegations made by The E.U and Google accusing them of using the treaty as a way to effectively gain control over the internet. Although It would appear that an agreement is a long way off, 89 nations did sign the treaty, with a further 12 including Italy, Portugal, Sweden and the Czech Republic reserving the right to defer signing until a later date.
The treaty called for all countries to hold equal rights over the governing of the internet. One theory suggests this would potentially open the door for tighter, more refined restrictions to arrive in the future, thus basically giving the U.N the first step on the ladder to gaining complete control of the online world.
One of the talking points of the 23 page document was on the topic of spam which stated that: "Member States should endeavour to take necessary measures to prevent the propagation of unsolicited bulk electronic communications and minimize its impact on international telecommunications services."
The keyword here is "unsolicited". It is impossible to determine the content of a message without reading through it first, and therefore impossible to determine if said message was asked for or not. This would allow for any message sent to be read without any form of consent. The U.S said this violated the first amendment, which prohibits any laws that curtail freedom of speech.
U.S ambassador for the WCIT Terry Kramer had (amongst other things) this to say: "It's with a heavy heart and a sense of missed opportunities that the US must communicate that it's not able to sign the agreement in the current form,"
A further 2 conferences are to be held in 2013, either one of which could see changes made to the treaty that would cause the 55 countries that did not sign to change their minds. Whether or not this comes to pass we can only wait and see. But, for now at least, common sense prevails.
2015 will see the arrival of a new ITU treaty that will replace the current (outdated) treaty that was put into place way back in 1988. This comes as a setback for the U.N as the countries that refused to sign are amongst the largest telecommunications powers on the planet.
The U.N were forced to deny allegations made by The E.U and Google accusing them of using the treaty as a way to effectively gain control over the internet. Although It would appear that an agreement is a long way off, 89 nations did sign the treaty, with a further 12 including Italy, Portugal, Sweden and the Czech Republic reserving the right to defer signing until a later date.
The treaty called for all countries to hold equal rights over the governing of the internet. One theory suggests this would potentially open the door for tighter, more refined restrictions to arrive in the future, thus basically giving the U.N the first step on the ladder to gaining complete control of the online world.
One of the talking points of the 23 page document was on the topic of spam which stated that: "Member States should endeavour to take necessary measures to prevent the propagation of unsolicited bulk electronic communications and minimize its impact on international telecommunications services."
The keyword here is "unsolicited". It is impossible to determine the content of a message without reading through it first, and therefore impossible to determine if said message was asked for or not. This would allow for any message sent to be read without any form of consent. The U.S said this violated the first amendment, which prohibits any laws that curtail freedom of speech.
U.S ambassador for the WCIT Terry Kramer had (amongst other things) this to say: "It's with a heavy heart and a sense of missed opportunities that the US must communicate that it's not able to sign the agreement in the current form,"
A further 2 conferences are to be held in 2013, either one of which could see changes made to the treaty that would cause the 55 countries that did not sign to change their minds. Whether or not this comes to pass we can only wait and see. But, for now at least, common sense prevails.
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