AMERICA and Europe are expected to disagree in a debate over the ownership and control of the internet at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunisia next week.

At the heart of the discussions will be proposals from the United Nations and European Union that would loosen America’s grip on how website names are assigned, in favour of a “new international model of co-operation”.

Passions are running high after the EU’s proposals received the backing of states known to stifle free speech.

“This issue, this outrageous putsch attempt, deserves an uproar heard around the world on the internet,” wrote blogger Bruce Kesler at Democracy Project. He criticised the EU for its ties to “such stalwarts of smothering internet freedom as China, Cuba, Iran”.

Rikomatic said such a line suited the White House. “You can see the US conservative spin machine turning this into a battle between the democracy-loving US Government protecting the internet from censorship from the dictators and thugs who run the UN,” it said. “The reality, of course, is more complex.”

The situation has been complicated by US foreign policy, Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos blog argued. The US Administration’s “international belligerence has given the rest of the world little faith that the US will have global interests in mind when regulating what is, in effect, a global medium”, he told the beltwayblogroll site.

www.beltwayblogroll.national-journal.com

www.democracy-project.com

www.rikomatic.com

www.dailykos.com

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