European Union Backs Down on Demands to Share Internet Governance

By Linda Orlando

Decades before Americans had ever heard the word "browser," the United States created the Internet as a Pentagon project and funded most of its development. Over the years since then, the U.S. Commerce Department has delegated much of the responsibility for policing the Internet to an American-based private organization. Although the governing board of that organization includes several international board members, the final veto power over decisions remains with the Commerce Department. Now that the Internet has evolved into a massive global communications entity, some countries are beginning to feel frustration because of being shut out of the Internet loop.

That frustration took center stage at November’s World Summit on the Information Society in Tunisia, when a stalemate developed over who should serve as the principal traffic cops for Internet routing and addressing. Some EU countries feel that developing nations have limited Internet addresses available now because of the United States and European countries that got on the Internet first. Before the summit, EU spokesman Martin Selmayr had said that a new model of cooperation was essential to EU members "because the Internet is a global resource." However, the response from Ambassador David Gross, the US coordinator for international communications and information policy at the State Department, was a strong one. "The EU ... is very firm on this position," he said. "We will not agree to the UN taking over the management of the Internet. Some countries want that. We think that's unacceptable."

News has now been released that a strongly-worded letter from the United States Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, may have been instrumental in preventing a diplomatic battle waged over Internet control. The note was sent to the British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, shortly after the WSIS meeting. Co-signed by Carlos Guiterrez, the US Secretary of Commerce, the letter suggested that America’s control of the Internet should remain as it is. This proposal was in opposition to suggestions by groups including the EU to have other plans become involved in the running of the system.

"Burdensome, bureaucratic oversight is out of place in an Internet structure that has worked so well for many around the globe," said the letter. "We regret the recent positions on Internet governance offered by the European Union," which, the letter said, seem to propose "a new structure of intergovernmental control over the Internet." Brazil, China, and Iran were among the countries lobbying for greater involvement in Internet governance, with the EU also proposing a number of changes. There was growing concern that a breakdown in relations between the US and other countries over Internet governance could result in an Internet meltdown because of many governments feeling slighted. But during the WSIS meeting, America stood strong against pressure from other countries, and summit attendees eventually agreed to leave thing as they are for now.

A copy of Rice’s letter emerged last week on the IT news website The Register. The text of the letter makes it clear where the United States stands on the issue of who is in charge of minding the Internet store. "The security and stability of the Internet are essential to the United States, the European Union, and to the world," the letter stated. "We firmly believe that the existing Internet system balances the stability and security we need with the innovation and dynamism that private sector leadership provides."