(Openmedia - the Stream)
[Josh Rushing] ...International Telecommunications and Union, and it's an agency of the United Nations.
They're meeting next week to negotiate a treaty on internet regulations
and discuss policies ranging from cybersecurity to online fraud
but digital rights groups have criticized the push for so-called internet central government.
and insist that an international treaty that includes the influence of countries
like China, Russia and others could lead to greater online censorship
and ITU says
its main objective is to increase internet access to underserved communities.
But should this goal be achieved through international regulations?
And can it be done without harming internet freedoms?
[Ellery Biddle] We've seen leaked proposals that clearly implicate the internet that would -
you know, with the goal of the improving cybersecurity, whatever that may mean
- it means different things different countries -
could limit people's privacy by, you know, being able to identify
a communication anywhere in the network
another proposal would limit free expression
would limit free expression by authorizing governments
to shut down communication networks for, you know - in the name of national security.
[Rushing] From your view as someone who fights to protect civil liberties online,
how much of a realistic threat do you see in cyber security and cyberwar,
and how much do you see that being used as kind of useful boogey man?
[Biddle] I think cybersecurity is such a subjective concept that it's almost -
- I don't think it's useful to really use the term very much.
[Unidentified speaker?] It's that issue transparency that's coming up, Sunju says
there's no transparency at all. Individual governments have tried and failed
and now they want to use the UN
to push for their bid, another from Mohammed who says governments will
basically use censorship to their advantage, crushing and suppressing all voices against them
[Josh Rushing] Well how do you respond to the critics who say that there's been a lack
of transparency in your process?
[Hamaoun Toure] Well, we have asked - I've asked as secretary general of ITU,
I've asked every nation to have national consultations.
And many countries have done so, and I've requested ITU
to send delegations there to continue to explain what the ITR (?) are about.
and some countries have done so.
And every country who wants - anyone who wants information
can contact his national government to get the information.
[Biddle] And that the idea of trying to get
all 193 countries together to agree by consensus
on policies related to anything - anything related to content really,
that alone
it's very difficult to imagine how you could come to consensus that
would be acceptable to all players.
The general question about how much should government's be able to watch
what users are doing online, and what are their motives there - is it in,
you know, pursuing real criminals
in some normative sense, or is it trying to control people who might be engaged
in some kind of activism that the government doesn't like?
[Unidentified ?] We've seen reports that the internet has been shut down in Syria.
dc0de says: To say that there isn't "Jamming" today, look at what syria has done
to their internet? The abuses of control already exist.
and there's a Facebook comment from Noemi who says:
In fact dozens of countries including China Russia and some Arab states already restrict
internet access within their own borders,
but these governments would have greater leverage over internet content service providers
if changes are made.