Google's Eric Schmidt Warns New UN Treaty Will be a Disaster
The United Nations is considering handing over control of regulation of the Internet to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), and ZDNET reports that Eric Schmidt made it clear that this is a bad idea:
"That would be a disaster... To some, the openness and interoperability is one of the greatest achievements of mankind in our lifetime. Do not give that up easily. You will regret it. You will hate it, because all of a sudden all that freedom, all that flexibility, you'll find it shipped away for one good reason after another," Schmidt said.
"I cannot be more emphatic. Be very, very careful about moves which seem logical, but have the effect of balkanising the internet," he added, urging everyone to strongly resist the moves.
The ITU is part of the United Nations and began discussing proposed changes that would take control from groups that were there at the inception of the Internet, such as ICANN. The proposals are rumored to be supported by China and Russia.
Eric Schmidt's comments came from a question and answer period at the Mobile World Congress 2012 held in Barcelona, focusing on the future of mobile strategy and technology.
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