We freely use the internet and access to its use is now fairly widespread - for good and bad!
A number of groups are now taking on the UN which is threatening to, in effect, take control of the internet.
"Trade unions, Greenpeace and communications corporations including Google on Monday launched a campaign to stop a proposal before the United Nations that would give the UN control of the internet.
"Stop the Net Grab" opposes the plan by some telecommunications companies and countries including China and Saudi Arabia. If approved, it would allow the UN's International Telecommunications Union to charge users for services such as email and restrict access to the internet and monitor activity online.
The International Trades Union Conference, representing 6.2 million union members in Britain, wrote that the proposal could "restrict political freedoms and harm civil society." Such changes would hit users from developing countries particularly hard, according to the ITUC.
"Unless we act now, our right to freely communicate and share information could change forever," ITUC general secretary Sharan Burrow told Australia's News Limited Network (ANLN). The ITUC represents 6.2 million union members in Britain.
If the plan is accepted, according to ANLN, "the changes would allow government restriction or blocking of information disseminated via the internet and create a global regime of monitoring internet communications—including the demand that those who send and receive information identify themselves." It would also allow governments to shut down the internet "if there is the belief that it may interfere in the internal affairs of other states or that information of a sensitive nature should be shared."
A number of groups are now taking on the UN which is threatening to, in effect, take control of the internet.
"Trade unions, Greenpeace and communications corporations including Google on Monday launched a campaign to stop a proposal before the United Nations that would give the UN control of the internet.
"Stop the Net Grab" opposes the plan by some telecommunications companies and countries including China and Saudi Arabia. If approved, it would allow the UN's International Telecommunications Union to charge users for services such as email and restrict access to the internet and monitor activity online.
The International Trades Union Conference, representing 6.2 million union members in Britain, wrote that the proposal could "restrict political freedoms and harm civil society." Such changes would hit users from developing countries particularly hard, according to the ITUC.
"Unless we act now, our right to freely communicate and share information could change forever," ITUC general secretary Sharan Burrow told Australia's News Limited Network (ANLN). The ITUC represents 6.2 million union members in Britain.
If the plan is accepted, according to ANLN, "the changes would allow government restriction or blocking of information disseminated via the internet and create a global regime of monitoring internet communications—including the demand that those who send and receive information identify themselves." It would also allow governments to shut down the internet "if there is the belief that it may interfere in the internal affairs of other states or that information of a sensitive nature should be shared."
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