U.S., Canada among nations refusing to sign UN cyberspace treaty

DUBAI — Envoys from nearly 90 countries signed the first new UN telecommunications treaty since the Internet age Friday, but the U.S., Canada and other western nations refused to join after claiming it endorses greater government control over cyberspace.

The head of the UN telecoms group pushed back against the U.S. assertions, defending the accord as necessary to help expand online services to poorer nations and add more voices to shape the direction of modern communications technology.

Hamadoun Toure’s remarks highlighted the wide gaps and hard-fought positions during the past 10 days of global talks in Dubai.

The talks essentially pitted the West’s desire to preserve the unregulated nature of the Internet against developing countries’ yearning for better web access and strong-arm states such as Iran and China that closely filter cyberspace.

The final break late Thursday was not over specific regulations in the UN group’s first telecoms review since before the Internet was a global force. Instead, it came down to an ideological split over the nature of the Inter- net and who is responsible for its growth and governance.

More than 20 countries joined the U.S. on Friday in refusing to sign the protocols by the UN’s International Telecommunications Union, claiming it opens the door to greater government control and could be used by authoritarian states to justify further crackdowns on cyberspace.

Rival countries — including Iran, China and African states — insist the governments should have a greater sway over Internet affairs and seek to break a perceived western grip on information technology. They also favour greater international help to bring reliable online links to the least developed regions.

The ITU, which dates to the mid-19th century, has no technical powers to change how the Internet operates or force countries to follow its non-binding accords, which also dealt with issues such as mobile phone roaming rates and international emergency numbers.

But the U.S. and its backers worry that the new treaty could alter the tone of debates on the Internet. Instead of viewing it as a free-form network, they claim, it could increasingly been seen as a commodity that needs clear lines of oversight.