ITU wants total internet control

Late Wednesday night, in a last ditch effort to get their way, the leadership of the UN agency we've been worried about, the International Telecommunications Union, took an unorthodox “temperature test” and then tried to convert the results of the poll into a binding resolution.

We set up our own “informal poll.” Do you think governments, including the repressive ones, should run the Internet?

ITU leadership (Wikipedia info) needed a consensus among countries that their agency should have greater global control of the Internet. Thanks to more than a million Internet users who signed petitions and on-the-ground efforts from groups like Avaaz, Access, and the ITUC, they didn’t get it.

The conference in Dubai ended in a cloud of controversy and embarrassment, with 55 countries refusing to sign the treaty and some 50 more who were not even allowed to vote because they aren’t up on their dues (read: poor countries). It just reinforces what we’ve been saying all along:

The UN is no place for Internet governance. They can’t even govern their own proceedings. We’re taking a poll to see if the internet agrees. Vote now!

Fight for the Future has been leading the charge against the ITU. We’re one of the few organizations that can respond immediately to urgent threats to the Internet. Please fund us so we can continue to fight closed-door government power grabs.

They failed this time, but they’ll reconvene in a few months. Governments shouldn’t control the Internet. Not the UN, not the US, certainly not the dictatorships trying to use the ITU.

If the ITU wants a temperature check, let’s give it to them. Donate $25 today and help us keep up the fight.

Glad to be fighting for the future with you,
Evan Greer
http://www.fightforthefuture.org

p.s. please share this campaign and tell everyone about this latest news from the ITU meetings! After this fiasco, they’re hoping that no one is paying attention. Prove them wrong.