FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press
GENEVA - The United Nations will not try to take the lead in
determining the future of the Internet, the head of the
U.N. telecommunications agency said Friday.
Hamadoun Toure, a Malian who was elected director-general of the
International Telecommunication Union in November, said the agency
would be just one of many organizations involved in shaping the
Internet's development.
"It is not my intention to take over the governance of the Internet,"
Toure told reporters in Geneva at his first press conference. "There
is no one single issue that can be dealt with by one organization
alone."
He said the ITU would work with other agencies such as the
quasi-independent Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers,
or ICANN, which manages the day-to-day flow of data across the
Internet from its Marina del Rey, Calif., headquarters and oversees
key rules that govern how computers communicate.
Control over these rules has been a major point of contention between
governments, with some developing countries demanding complete
independence of ICANN from the U.S. government, perhaps with the
U.N.-affiliated body taking control.
Other countries have threatened to set up a parallel infrastructure
that could lead to multiple, incompatible Internets.
"We have to avoid a 'cyberwar' between governments," Toure said,
adding that regulation should be as light as possible and adapt to
local conditions.
He praised the U.S. Federal Communications Commission as a model
regulatory body, saying the FCC was "one of our very dynamic members
... with a very positive attitude" toward solving technical issues.
Toure's four-year term begins as the U.N. increases its efforts to
make communication technology part of its global development plans and
bridge the so-called "information divide" between rich and poor
countries.
Two ITU summits in 2003 and 2005 proposed expanding telephone access
to at least half the world's population by 2012. But the meetings
grappled with the question of Internet governance, with neither
providing a lasting solution.
Toure said a second priority during his leadership would be to
increase security of the Internet against hackers, spammers and other
cybercriminals -- increasingly important as the world's dependence on
telecommunication technology grows.
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Frank Jordans, AP (ap@telecom-digest.org)