From https://www.whatistheitu.org/ The era of pamphleteering in the late 1700s was the same. The governments used repressive legislation and printing press breaking gangs to prevent the populace from using the written word as a means of dissemination and organisation. Do not be complacent, the failure of the AGW Paradigm is a blow to the centralising tendency, and the UN is planning a backlash against the medium which exposed its hidden agenda.
We love the internet.
And we’re guessing you do too. Think about all the awesome things it gives us: A vast communication network; innovative businesses; a platform to freely speak or challenge powerful governments; and hundreds and hundreds of hours of cat videos.
All this great stuff is available because the internet was designed in an open and inclusive way, with a multitude of voices being able to get a say on how it’s governed.
But the internet is in danger.
There’s a meeting between the world’s governments in a just a few weeks, and it could very well decide the future of the internet through a binding international treaty. It’s called the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), and it’s being organized by a government-controlled UN agency called the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
If some proposals at WCIT are approved, decisions about the internet would be made by a top-down, old-school government-centric agency behind closed doors. Some proposals allow for access to be cut off more easily, threaten privacy, legitimize monitoring and blocking online traffic. Others seek to impose new fees for accessing content, not to mention slowing down connection speeds. If the delicate balance of the internet is upset, it could have grave consequences for businesses and human rights.
This must be stopped.
Only governments get a vote at WCIT, so we need people from all around the world to demand that our leaders keep the internet open.
Watch the video, and take action above to tell your governments to oppose handing over key decisions about the internet to the ITU. Let’s use the internet’s global reach to save it.
Tallbloke's Talkshop 
10% of the people visiting this thread are clicking through to the website. Maybe the other 90% aren’t bothered whether they can continue to use a free internet or not. 😦
Don’t give up on your readers, tallbloke. It’s a holiday here in the US. (:
One of the 10%, then !
Another member of the 10% — blogged about it and will be contacting my Senator as a 2/3rds vote is required for the President to ratify any treaty.
Good on you both. The 10% is now 16% of 165 visits.
Zeke, enjoy the turkey. Don’t eat to much of that stuffing 🙂
The ITU has been behind the standardisation of Telecommunications networks globally, for more than 40 years, to ensure that the different national phone systems would work when connected to each other.
it traditionally only addressed technicalities, rather than policy and only made. Recommendations, which member countries were free to adopt as they saw fit.
The ITU is a Techical Forum, & should not be regulating.
The ITU has traditionally held its plenary session once every 4 years , at about this time.
Therefore I wouldnt be too concerned about it being any sort of conspiracy in itself.
Worth keeping an eye on though.
This has been in the works since Obama first took office:
“Just this past spring, within months of Obama’s taking office, his administration, through the Department of Commerce, agreed to relinquish some control over IANA and their governance. The Obama administration has agreed to give greater representation to foreign companies and countries on IANA.”
Of course, countries like China and Iran are the most enthusiastic about internationalizing control of the internet. And, I think, the UN is no fan of WUWT or tallbloke’s talkshop.
read more at:
http://www.internationalfreepresssociety.org/2009/05/who-controls-the-internet/
http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/obama-internet-iana-united/2010/01/31/id/348514
tallbloke says: Zeke, enjoy the turkey. Don’t eat to much of that stuffing
Thanks tallbloke, I didn’t. In fact nobody else touched it, either. I don’t know what I forgot to put in it. (:
thanks Tallbloke,
I can not say I am surprised. Being able to freely communicate has always been a danger to those who control via propaganda.
And yes the news has hit the USA. I found it first on one of my farming websites.
[…] Via Tallbloke: […]
Tallbloke you are right:
http://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/computers/item/13836-un-using-propaganda-to-defend-proposed-internet-regime
http://www.abc6.com/story/20242017/clashes-over-internet-rules-to-mark-dubai-meeting
There is a treaty-writing conference right now, until Dec 14th. I think Lord Monckton would find more to report from there than Doha.
“Among the most audacious proposals: a so-called Internet “kill switch” critics say would eventually be used to destroy free speech, a global surveillance regime, online taxes and fees, regulation of social media, an end to Internet anonymity, putting the Web under ITU jurisdiction, handing oppressive regimes the power to shut down the Internet, and much more. Unsurprisingly, authoritarian forces from China and Russia to Iran and Saudi Arabia and everywhere in between have lined up to support the schemes.”