UN doesn't want to take over Internet, does want to help telcos profit

In a speech on Wednesday, the head of the International Telecommunications Union, an agency of the United Nations, explicitly denied that the group is interested in taking over the Internet. But this speech makes clear that the body is quite interested in helping domestic telecommunications operators make boatloads of cash by controlling the flows of content to individual countries.

The ITU is set to host the December 2012 World Conference on International Telecommunications in Dubai (or, the WCIT-12, for short). Here, a new set of International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs) is set to be negotiated. These haven't been revised since 1988. In fact, the existing ones have all kinds of references to outdated gear (telexes!). Many news outlets and members of the American government have sounded the alarm that the UN, via the ITU, is going to "take over the Internet," and that the United States should essentially oppose this move.