ITU Says It Would Be Ready To Run Internet

[Dave Zan]

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsA...73007Z_01_WRI062957_RTRUKOC_0_US-INTERNET.xml

The United Nations' International Telecommunications Union (ITU) is ready to take over governance of the Internet from the United States., ITU head Yoshio Utsumi said on Friday.

The United States has clashed with the European Union and much of the rest of the world over the future of the Internet. It currently manages the global information system through a partnership with California-based company ICANN.

"We could do it if we were asked to," Utsumi told a news conference. The U.N. agency's experience in communications, its structure and its cooperation with private and public bodies made it best-placed to take on the role, he said.

Washington has made clear it would oppose any such move despite widespread demands for changes in the current system.

"We will not agree to the United Nations taking over management of the Internet," said David Gross, a U.S. State Department official attending a two-week conference preparing for a U.N. "Information Society Summit" in Tunisia in November.

This...is going to get ugly...

 

[GeorgeK]

ITU would be a disaster, but ICANN sucks too. It's a choice between which is the lesser evil.

Better to keep it with Uncle Sam, in my opinion, instead of places where banana republics have equal votes as the USA.