BRIC nations could compromise Internet's free expression, economic growth module: UN body

New York, Feb.28 (ANI): The International Telecommunication Union, an obscure branch of the United Nations, which has 193 member states that include the United States, has warned that the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) nations are tightening individual Internet regulations that could compromise free expression and economic growth globally in the long term.

In an op-ed article appearing in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and in a subsequent interview with Fox Business, Robert McDowell, a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission, has accused BRIC countries and their allies among developing nations of trying to strengthen international regulation of the Internet, which would imperil the Webs historic role as an outlet for free expression and economic growth.

United Nations diplomats are scheduled to meet in Geneva later this week to discuss their concerns over a potential takeover of the Internet by foreign powers.

However, others claimed such fears were wildly over-hyped.

The ostensible purpose of the conference, according to the WSJ, is to seek a consensus for an updating of the last set of international telecom regulations,or ITRs, which were issued in 1988.

There is general agreement that the ITRs need to be updated to reflect the significant changes that have taken place in the information and communication technology sector in the past 24 years," International Telecommunication Union spokesman Gary Fowlie said in an email to Fox News.

But McDowell has been warning that the conference is a moment of great peril for industrialized and Third World countries alike.

It's everything from economic regulation of the Internet to the administration of domain names, like .com and .org, McDowell told Fox Business last week, as well as engineering standards, cyber-security, and privacy, among many other ideas. ... There are a variety of motivations, I think, driving this, including wanting local phone companies, sometimes owned by local governments, to be able to charge on a per-click basis for certain websites.

McDowell suggested the forces aligned behind such goals are more organized and pro-active than opponents of such measures, like the U.S.

That is very troublesome, he said.

Fowlie, however, said that the International Telecommunication Union does not want heavy-handed regulation, and added that there are no proposals on the table that would impact access to or freedom of the Internet."

The Geneva conference is part of a series of meetings to be held in advance of a conference in Dubai in December, known as the World Conference on International Telecommunications. (ANI)