Russia might be reeling from an “armed mutiny” at home and a botched invasion of Ukraine, but that hasn’t stopped it from pushing a plan for centralized United Nations oversight of the internet. An unfortunate new wrinkle is that Moscow’s approach appears to be getting some support from U.N. Secretary General António Guterres.
“We’re concerned about the Russians … pushing their authoritarian digital agenda in every forum around the world,” explained a senior Biden administration official in an email. “It’s global and relentless, and when we step back even a little bit, they fill that void.” He said the State Department has conveyed its “legitimate concern” about a U.N. “takeover” of internet governance to U.N. officials in New York.
Russia’s latest bid for top-down internet control came in a resolution submitted for next week’s meeting in Geneva of the ruling council of the U.N.’s International Telecommunication Union. Moscow’s proposal seeks changes in governance “to prevent fragmentation of the Internet,” according to a document posted on the ITU website.
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