ITU: Russia Gives Up Its Plan To Have The UN Rule The Internet

According to Reuters, A Russian-led coalition has withdrawn its proposal to turn Internet governance over to the United Nations.

The plan would have in part take control away from ICANN over the domain naming system and give it to the U.N.

“The proposal, supported by China, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and others, would have called on the U.N. to help member states seize control of key Internet engineering assets, including domain names, addresses, and numbering. The United States, Canada, France, Sweden, and others opposed the proposal, fearing that it could do grave harm to the current free and open Internet.”

An ITU spokesman said this plan had now been scrapped.

“It looks like the Russians and Chinese overplayed their hand,” said American cyber security expert Jim Lewis of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

“U.S. ambassador Terry Kramer welcomed the decision to withdraw the Russia-led plan. But he also said: “These issues will continue to be on the table for discussion in other forms during the remainder of the conference.”