The Bush administration and its critics at a United Nations summit
at Tunis in Tunisia have inked a broad agreement on global Internet management that will preclude any dramatic showdown this week.By signing the statement, the Bush administration formally endorsed the creation of an "Internet Governance Forum" that will meet for the first time in 2006 under the auspices of the UN. The forum is meant to be a central point for global discussions of everything from computer security and online crime to spam and other "misuses of the Internet".
What the agreement does not do is require the US to relinquish its unique influence over the Internet's operations. The statement takes "no action regarding existing institutions", David Gross, the ambassador leading the US delegation, said on Wednesday. "It created no new international organisations."
The last-minute deal, reached just hours before the WSIS began on Wednesday, effectively postpones a long-simmering dispute over the future of Internet management. China, Cuba, South Africa and other nations have argued that the US and other wealthier nations must share power — complaints that now will be taken to the new UN forum.
"It is a matter of justice and legitimacy that all people must have a say in the way the Internet is governed," Luisa Diogo, the prime minister of Mozambique, told the thousands of delegates who have gathered in Tunisia's capital city.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe offered a more ominous warning. The US and allies such as the UK unreasonably "insist on being world policemen on the management of the Internet", and that must change, Mugabe said.
At issue in this dispute is the unique influence the US government wields over the master list of top-level domain names — such as .com, .org and country codes including .uk and .jp — as a result of the network's historical origins. In addition, ICANN, the nonprofit organisation created by the Clinton administration to oversee day-to-day management is located in Marina del Rey, California
In June, the Bush administration announced it had no plans to relinquish its role as at least a symbolic guarantor of the stability of the Internet. A statement published at the time backed the current ICANN structure and said "no action" will be taken that could destabilise the Internet.
Over the last few months, the administration's envoys have found themselves increasingly isolated in preliminary meetings leading up to the Tunisia summit.
The European Union, for instance, implicitly backed the creation of a stronger UN body...
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