[grundle]

This is just dumb. The old phrase "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is a cliche, but true. The U.N. has a really bad idea here. This is really a political agenda, not a technological one. If China or whoever doesn't like how the internet is being run, then they can create their own internet and run it however they want. I think what the U.N. really objects to is the free flow, unregulated, uncensored access to information that people currently have on the internet. I don't see how the U.N. could make the internet any better. But I do see how they could ruin it with their political agenda.

[markomalley]

As far as I am concerned, if another country wants to build the appropriate infrastructure, let them...to do it my UN mandate is simply ridiculous.

[facedown]

...China even threatened a few years ago to split the Internet in two and set up its own naming system for Chinese.

By all means, go right ahead.

[THEBEAK]

Check out my posting yesterday on the Dissolution of Privacy in America.

Could it be that this is a probable source of where these lists are originating from?

[TomGuy]

UN wants to control the Internet.

UN wants to tax individually within various Nation.

UN wants.....

UN wants.....

UN wants.....

UN is not much more than a source to scam Nations and enrich those who have positions or relatives in the UN. [Remember Food for Oil? Kofi's son's personal gain?]

Eventually, we will see the UN wanting reparations (from the wealthy Nations, of course) for worldly ills that long pre-dated the establishment of the UN. Hey, shakedowns have been working for Jesse Jackson for decades.

[R. Scott]

Yep.

[bill1952]

So we really want the UN GC member nations to hold the whip hand over us?

Remember, that's where there non-security issues are governed.

Yep, the US would be outvoted by Algeria and Zimbabwe.

Bye bye Free Republic.

[ken21]

my guess is a president like hillary would allow the u.n. control over the internet in order to subdue her opposition.

meanwhile, the u.n. would love control for the purpose of raising an international sales tax.

[mewzilla]

When it comes to the UN, I have three words: Oil For Food.

[Vn_survivor_67-68]

this is about sovreignty, again.......canada and australia URL's are sovereign in that they contain a dot-ca or au.....adding a dot-us URL component would be cheap and easy, and wouldn't give up another piece of sovreignty to globalists.

[cake_crumb]

They're really desperate to take control of the Internet from the US (where it was invented) in order to control the flow of information to the Plebes, who'd stop dreaming of freedom as long as all the dirty propaganda outta the US (like FR) can be banned. It's for the children.

[RedRover]

I love how the headline frames the story as if it were just a simple question of fairness. Should one country control the Internet? Gosh, no, that's unfair. Then hand it over to the UN.
Good grief.

[F.J. Mitchell]

Since the internet was invented by none other than our resident genius, Al Gore, I feel the USA has every right and obligation to control it.

What entity is better qualified anyway, that good old UN oil for food scam machine?

[demlosers]

Developing countries have been frustrated that Western countries that got on the Internet first gobbled up most of the available addresses required for computers to connect, leaving developing nations to share a limited supply.

Hey dingbats at AP!
They can just wait for IPv6.

[COUNTrecount]

What does Al say?

[Washi]

We invented it. We built it. We funded it. U.N. wants to control it.

No thanks.

[Bear_Slayer]

This is why they call it cyberspace.

The word cyber, comes from the greek which originally meant a helmsman; one who governed a ship. In modern greek it means to govern.

A world government is coming, and it will start with the Internet.

[Nebr FAL owner]

I tend to agree with you concerning the UN's political agenda & it's desire to gain control of the infrastructure that runs internet address/traffic control. Besides we built the thing we are the ones who ought to keep it running for the sake of the rest of the world.

[oldbrowser]

If it exists, regulate it.

This is what governments do, they govern (even if they a totally unqualified).

The UN is not a government, they must never be allowed to become a government.

Then the next step will be to tax it (in order to provide funding for the coordination).

[Toskrin]

This is all classic socialism thinking at work, on an international level. Seize the work that one nation has invested successfully in for the good of the world.

There is nothing to prevent the UN from building their own naming scheme that sits as a layer on top of the current network. But that would require work, and socialists don't like to do work, they just like to steal someone else's.

[Ol' Sox]

UN: "Thanks for building it. We'll take it from here."

USA: "Well, who do you have working on it?"

UN: "We've got our top men working on it."

USA: (incredulously) "What men? What men are working on it??"

UN: "TOP men"

/sarc