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WSIS
U.S. to Stay in Charge of Internet
By Hilmi Toros - TerraViva/IPS
TUNIS, Nov 16 , 2005 (IPS) - The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) kicks off Wednesday with a compromise
document approved unanimously after several months of fruitless negotiations.
The document was hailed late Tuesday with a half-hearted standing ovation. The
discontent arises because the Internet status quo has been maintained, allowing the US-
based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a non-profit
private entity working under an agreement with the U.S. government, to continue as the
main governing body of the global computer network.
"Very happy with the result," Ambassador David Gross, U.S. coordinator of International
Communications and Information Policy, told IPS.
South Africa's Thembe Phiri, who had pushed for multinational governance of the Internet,
said "a spirit of compromise prevailed", but added that the South had not given up its
quest for a stronger voice in the future of the Internet.
The outcome is likely to further upset civil society groups who have found themselves
frustrated by intimidating security measures that have isolated foreign delegates,
journalists and non-governmental organisations from local groups.
Developing countries, the European Union and civil society groups had sought a
compromise on opening up ICANN to more international control. The body is widely seen
as being under U.S. tutelage.
In the compromise document, any follow-up discussions on Internet governance - one of
the most fought-over issues since the summit's first leg in Geneva two years ago - is left
to independent fora, whose decisions will not be binding. The first such forum is to be
held in Greece next year, the U.S. official said.
Proposed as 'the solution', the World Summit on the Information Society is accentuating
the problem: the North-South political impasse in tackling the North-South Digital Divide.
All agree that the Internet has enormous potential for development, including in health,
commerce and governance among a host of critical issues. But, as was in evidence in
arduous preparations for the Summit, the North-South divide prevailed over future
management of the tool that civil society calls "a global public space that should be open
and accessible to all on a non-discriminatory basis."
"The Internet...must be seen as a global public infrastructure," says The Association for
Progressive Communications (APC), an international network of civil society organisations.
"In this regard we recognise the Internet to be a global public good and access to it is in
the public interest, and must be provided as a public provision."
Yet, on the eve of the 173-nation summit, it became apparent in a morass of last-minute
give-and-take among harassed delegates that the South's viewpoint would not hold sway.
Despite a determined push by South Africa, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Brazil and others from
the developing world, the developed countries, the United States and Australia in the main,
held firm against any action that would have transferred powers from the U.S.-based
ICANN. The corporation manages the domain name system (DNS) enabling millions of
computer users around the world to communicate with each other.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has characterised the Tunis summit as "unique" because
it will consider "how best to use a new global asset" rather than focusing on global threats,
as most world summits do.
In fact, there is much more to the summit than Internet governance, although that topic
has overshadowed others.
Scores of companies have come to show off the latest in information and communications
technology. More than 300 parallel events and roundtable debates are being held, and
partnerships between private business and local communities in making Internet access
cheaper and more widely available in Asia, Africa and South America are being showcased.
One project has solar energy supplying the power for computers in places where electricity
generation is expensive.
Yoshio Utsumi, head of the International Telecommunication Union and secretary-general
of the summit, is pushing for a one billion dollar project called 'Connect the World' to
enable 800,000 villages to access the Internet. (END)
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