Resolution urges White House to keep UN away from the Internet

Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., Wednesday re-introduced a nonbinding resolution calling on President Obama to oppose any efforts by the United Nations to take over governance of the Internet.

"It has become increasingly clear that international governmental organizations, such as the United Nations, have aspirations to become the epicenter of Internet governance. And I'm going to do everything I can to make sure this never happens," Bono Mack, the new chairwoman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade, said in a statement.

She introduced a similar resolution in the last Congress. Bono Mack wrote House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., Wednesday to urge her to advance the measure.

The resolution notes that some countries that favor having the United Nations or another international entity play a bigger role in Internet governance "use the Internet as a tool of surveillance to curtail legitimate political discussion and dissent." Such countries want the United Nations or another international entity to "endorse national policies that block access to information, stifle political dissent, and maintain outmoded communications structures," according to the resolution.

The main group that currently has a formal governing role over the Internet is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a California-based nonprofit that was picked by the U.S. government in 1998 to take over management of the Internet's domain name system.

In December, the United Nations hosted a meeting on ways to enhance "cooperation on international public policy issues pertaining to the Internet." At the meeting, ICANN President and CEO Rod Beckstrom called for continuing support for ICANN and its process of working with Internet stakeholders, including the United Nations and national governments.

"The entire ecosystem collaborates: ICANN, Internet service providers, domain name businesses, [the Internet Society], [the Internet Engineering Task Force], governments, regional Internet registries, individual Internet users, non-profits and businesses around the world. And it works," Beckstrom said in his prepared remarks. "The multi-stakeholder model is not the problem. It's the solution."