Pause your download — the internet is in for a serious shake-up. A recent bit of leaked information has Russia leading a charge to put the IP-based networks completely under United Nations control. Instead of private organizations controlling the standards and best practices of internet, this would have governmental bodies deciding the future of the net. Unsurprisingly, this is creating a substantial amount of worry regarding the integrity of the internet going forward.

The World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) is being held in Dubai from the third to the fourteenth of December. Ahead of this, it has been leaked that Russia has made a proposal that would drastically alter the way the internet is governed. If Russia is able to have their way, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the Internet Society (ISOC) would be extinguished for all intents and purposes while the UN and its members take direct control of the internet.

While this might seem like good news for counties besides the US, this is actually potentially dangerous. If the internet goes from being controlled by non-profit organizations with no direct government ties to being directly controlled by a cabal of government officials, we’re in for some bad times. It doesn’t take the mind of a conspiracy theorist to come up with a laundry list of bad outcomes. While it is completely reasonable for other countries to be uncomfortable with mainly US-based organizations controlling the internet, giving the UN members control of the internet is not the solution. For the internet to remain roughly in an unadulterated state, it has to stay out of the hands of governments, and that includes the United States government.

To satisfy a need for international representation, the current private organizations need to branch out farther, and give more power to people of other countries. Everyone deserves to help mold the future of the internet, but it should be done by private organizations of academics and engineers. The historically US-centric administration of the infrastructure of the internet is partly to blame for Russia’s attempt at wrestling control away for the United Nations. If we have any hope of keeping the UN members from having complete control of the internet, it is by extending an olive branch to the academics of the world. ICANN and ISOC need to double down on their internationalization efforts, and everyone who doesn’t want the UN to control the internet needs to make some serious noise. For example, a good first step would be the founding of official ICANN and ISOC headquarters in the top ten or twenty most populated countries.

China famously censors the internet for its inhabitants. The US has its own problems with bills like SOPA, PIPA, and CISPA continuing to pop up. When it comes to copyright enforcement, we’ve already seen what can happen when one country’s government strong-arms other countries into a specific agenda. We’ve already seen the UN struggle with topics like freedom of speech. The tech community should have no confidence in any government or group of governments trying to rule the internet. For the sake of the open internet, control must remain with non-profit private organizations. The leaked Russian proposal is bad for the internet, and it endangers the last few decades of progress in a serious way.

[Image credit: Julian Burgess]