联合国拟管控互联网

    受到发展中国家和某些国家的推动，联合国的官僚们突然灵机一动，想到了控制全球通信和商务的美妙新点子：管制互联网。

    在这个狂热的选举季，这是极少数能把政治左中右派都团结起来的话题之一。硅谷以外的商界领袖也该学聪明点，赶快行动起来关注这一议题。美国的反对有点来不及了，联合国对互联网征税和管制的计划已经取得缓慢而坚定的进展，12月份将在迪拜进行条约谈判。

    理查德•格雷内尔在2001年到2009年间担任四任美国驻联合国大使的发言人和顾问，他指出：“让联合国或其它国际组织来管制互联网意味着：人们只能在193个国家中达成最低限度的共识。”

    美国保守派就经常抱怨联合国总是成为这种最低限度共识的聚集地。最近的例子就是有人阻碍对叙利亚这样的危险分子采取行动。现在这种担忧居然要降临到互联网头上，大概是因为互联网传播了太多的自由言论，以及随之而来的不满和反抗。

    具体实施这一管制的是不为人知的联合国机构：国际电信联盟（International Telecommunication Union，ITU），它负责协调跨境事宜比如无线电频谱和卫星轨道。2012年12月的国际电信世界大会（官僚化的简称WCIT-12）上，国际电信联盟将试图把其权限扩展到互联网。看起来还有短短6个月，但其实国际电信联盟的工作小组已经打好了基础。

    支持这一努力的是俄国总统弗拉基米尔•普京这样的统治者，普京在去年公开表达了建立对互联网的“国际控制”的想法。这些势力“可不是什么互联网自由的堡垒，”佛罗里达州参议员马克•卢比奥在上个月的听证会上说。“任何禁止某些关键词搜索的国家都不该成为国际互联网监管框架的领导者。”

    美国众议院通信及技术委员会也将在星期四召开听证会。

    发展中国家也在推动对互联网的国际控制，但其目标除了政治控制，还在于寻求新的收入来源（允许外国电话公司对国际流量收费是有待讨论的提议之一）。格雷内尔在十年前就看到这种加强管制的努力已经开始抬头，他注意到联合国的发展中国家成员积极参与那些可以强化它们自身对商务的控制和影响以及需要商界寻求它们的意见和批准的议题。

    The bureaucrats at the United Nations, prodded by developing countries and exemplars of democracy like Russia and China, have hit on an enticing new way to control global communication and commerce: They want to regulate the Internet.

    It's one of those rare issues in this heated campaign season that is uniting the political left, right, and middle in Washington. Business leaders beyond Silicon Valley would be smart to sit up and take notice, too -- and fast. American opponents are being seriously outpaced by U.N. plans to tax and regulate that are already grinding forward in advance of a December treaty negotiation in Dubai.

    "Having the U.N. or any international community regulate the Internet only means you're going to have the lowest common denominator of 193 countries," notes Richard Grenell, who served as spokesman and adviser to four U.S. ambassadors to the U.N. between 2001 and 2009.

    That the U.N. too often acts as a repository of the world's lowest common denominator is a familiar complaint from American conservatives. Witness blocked attempts to take action against bad actors like Syria. Now those fears are being realized over the Internet, which has a nasty habit of spreading free speech -- and with it, discontent and revolt.

    The conduit is a little known U.N. agency called the International Telecommunication Union, which coordinates cross-border issues such as radio spectrum and satellite orbits. At the December 2012 World Conference on International Telecommunications in Dubai (bureaucratically titled the WCIT-12) the ITU will consider expanding its purview to the Internet. That may be six months away -- but ITU working groups are already laying the groundwork.

    Behind the effort are efficient censor machines like China, and autocrats like Russian President Vladimir Putin, who last year declared his desire to establish "international control" of the Internet. These are "not exactly bastions of Internet freedom," as Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio put it during a hearing last month. "Any place that bans certain terms from search should not be a leader in an international Internet regulatory framework."

    The House Communications and Technology subcommittee convenes its own hearing Thursday.

    Also pushing for international controls are developing countries hungry not only for political control, but also for new sources of revenue. (Allowing foreign phone companies to collect fees on international traffic is one proposal under discussion.) Grenell, who saw the regulatory effort spring up from the beginning a decade ago, notes that developing countries at the U.N. "get excited about taking up global issues that will give them more control and influence over commerce, that require businesses to seek their input and approval."