Plans to impose a censorship and mass surveillance framework may now commence

Kurt Nimmo

Infowars.com

March 15, 2014

On Friday the U.S. Commerce Department released its grasp on the internet. Oversight of ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, will be passed on to the “global internet community” next year. ICANN, under a Commerce Department contract, has issued domain names since 2000.

ICANN president praises global control over internet.

The United States has played a leading role in managing internet technology but has faced pressure to globalize management of the internet over the last few years.

“We will not accept a proposal that replaces the NTIA role with a government-led or an intergovernmental solution,” said National Telecommunications & Information Administration boss Larry Strickling. The NITTA is an agency within the Commerce Department.

During the World Summit on Information Society more than a decade ago, it was proposed that governments not have too much control over the internet. “The international management of the Internet should be multilateral, transparent and democratic, with the full involvement of governments, the private sector, civil society and international organizations.”

In the intervening years the United Nations and the European Union have jostled for control the internet. During a meeting in Dubai last year the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the telecom branch of the United Nations, demanded rules governing the internet be rewritten. Specifically, the international organization proposed deep-packet inspection authority that would allow it to monitor and censor content on the internet. The United States walked out of the conference in protest.

Hamadoun Toure, Secretary-General of the ITU, released the fourth and final ITU/WTPF-13 report in May, 2013, outlining groundwork for internet governance and regulatory topics. The report calls for the creation of “Global Principles for the governance and use of the Internet” and proposes resolution of issues pertaining to “use of Internet resources for purposes that are inconsistent with international peace, stability and security.”

The proposed changes were backed by China, Russia, Brazil, India and other UN members.

“Internet freedom’s foes around the globe are working hard to exploit a treaty negotiation that dwarfs the importance of the [U.N.’s 2012 World Conference on International Telecommunications] by orders of magnitude,” warned outgoing U.S. Federal Communications Commissioner Robert McDowell in testimony before Congress in a joint U.S. House subcommittee hearing on international Internet governance last February.

The European Union has proposed censoring the internet to protect children and fight terrorism. The Clean IT project proposed the creation of a censorship and mass surveillance framework for EU countries funded by the European Commission. “The Clean IT project aimed to start a constructive dialogue between governments, businesses and civil society to explore how to reduce the terrorist use of the internet. This dialogue resulted in a set of general principles and an overview of possible best practices,” the Clean IT Project web page explains. The plan called for police to patrol Facebook and other social networks in search of “extremist material” and propaganda. In addition to allowing users to flag “terrorist” content and turn other users in to the police, the proposals called for eliminating anonymity on the internet.

In addition to censorship, the ICANN transfer will allow for a globalist taxation scheme. “While the Obama administration says it is merely removing federal oversight of a non-profit, we should assume ICANN would end up as part of the United Nations,” former Bush administration State Department senior advisor Christian Whiton told The Daily Caller. “If the U.N. gains control what amounts to the directory and traffic signals of the Internet, it can impose whatever taxes it likes. It likely would start with a tax on registering domains and expand from there.”

The UN and EU have sketched out how the future internet will work. Now that ICANN has relinquished control of the medium, globalist institutions can move forward with plans to scrub the internet of all content unacceptable to the global elite and their apparatchiks at the United Nations and, as well, turn it into a revenue generating cash cow.

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