Time For Multilateral Control Of The Internet

The UN's WSIS Prepcomm in Geneva has ended on a divided note. The US Government's Ambassador Gross statement - The UN will not be in charge of the Internet - Period. had been countered with anearly unanimous global response from nations for some sort of government control of the Internet on a multilateral basis. A number of alternate proposals are on the table – mostly non –supportive of the indefinite continuance of unilateral US control of the root zone authorisation. For non Americans, the unilateral control of the root zone by the US is EQUALLY UNACCEPTABLE – PERIOD. There is no indisputable universally acceptable view that the security and stability may happen only if the root zone authorization lay with the US. Status quo is no solution –we have to create a new internet framework – one that is equitable and protective of the collective interest of all nations – the US included. Some rile at the practicality of transferring the root authorization – the fact is that if all in the world except USA were to switch to a new root,despite US opposition to such a move, it is clear that the other countries would probaby win. The informed US citizens may defy a US govt directive to register with its zone authorization framework. I think that the US is in a bind and plainly stupid in taking such public positions on sensitive issues like this – when enough safe & credible alternatives exist.