Russia Goes for Gold in Internet Regulation | Freedom House: " . . . take note of another world event Putin wants to host in Sochi. The proposed second World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) in 2015 would grapple with some of the most complex issues related to the internet, including how it operates, the structure of its virtual economy and who manages its content.Over the coming year, the United Nations will sponsor more than a half dozen meetings to prepare for the long-term WSIS agenda. If advocates of human rights and democracy online fail to pay close attention, Russia and other internet-regulation supporters such as China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia will use the meetings to transfer control of the internet from apolitical technical agencies to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a Geneva-based UN body. The ITU has served an important, useful function in regulating telegraph, radio, TV, satellites, and other communication technologies. But it is the wrong body to govern the internet. If the states in favor of giving the ITU "jurisdiction over the internet's operations and content" succeed in imposing geographic rules on the borderless internet, the change would quickly stifle innovation and the free exchange of ideas that have driven cyberspace's growth and influence..." (read more at link above)
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