America will not let go of regulatory influence over the Internet |
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Mon, 24 Oct 2005 08:35
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WASHINGTON - US President George W Bush has taken a personal interest in the rather obscure world of Internet governance and has raised the matter in a discussion with the EC president this week.
The meeting with European Commission President José Barroso took place at the White House on Tuesday and reflects that concern that has arisen as a result of third-world countries demanding a reduction of American influence over the World Wide Web. The European Commission has also pulled its weight behind a proposal that is scheduled to be discussed at the United Nations summit this November.
The main problem arose from the fact that the US federal government has got an unrestricted monopoly over the Internet addresses and "the master database of top-level domain names." This is probably a reflection of the fact that the Internet had its origins in a US Navy lab.
But American influence and interference if now raising questions and third world counties including those in Europe want to make sure that the governance is spread equally. US Ambassador David Gross, the State Department's coordinator for information policy was categorical in stating that they did want an amicable solution to this problem, "Obviously we want to find common ground, we want a successful summit, but we're not giving away our principles in order to get there," he said.
The Bush administration has raised an objection over the proposed domain name of .xxx for pornographic sites on the Internet. The State Department's Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy met on Thursday to discuss the issue and it was stressed in no uncertain terms that America would not let go of its control over the system that has run so smoothly ever since its inception.
"For all of you involved in Internet governance and the model that has been set up, we support it and we believe it's what's good for the world. In no way can we imagine a situation in which we will allow what works very well to be undone," commented Josette Shiner, the State Department's undersecretary for economic, business, and agricultural affairs.
Nominet, the UK Company that regulates the .uk domain name has now pulled its weight behind the US for some strange reason by saying that there should be no radical change in the system. All this will now be debated at the United Nations summit in Tunisia in November.
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