Whoa!

To:      The Congress of the United States
From: A Concerned American Citizen

This is an urgent message STOP It is brief because brevity increases its chances of being read STOP The Internet is an American creation STOP Because of that, the Internet functions within the shield of America’s golden First Amendment-also an American creation STOP But the Internet’s merits-and there are many exquisite ones-are routinely despised and threatened by a host of voting blocs at the United Nations STOP The UN member states behave very much as individual nations have done for centuries STOP Alliances, mainly regional, are formed and bloc voting is common STOP Apart from their authors’ humanitarian intentions, UN ‘resolutions,’ ‘treaties,’ ‘declarations,’ and ‘agreements,’ are heavily characterized by non-binding goals, most of which never fly STOP Although freedom of speech is declared a human right, the UN is helpless to enforce its Universal Human Rights Declaration STOP Its 30 articles are inspired by the Constitution of the United States and, of course, includes freedom of speech STOP However, individual states insist on selective censorship in accordance to their particular culture STOP Even France, a liberal democracy, bans any public display of the Nazi Swastika and advocates censorship of pornography on the Internet STOP Other, less civilized nations, use censorship as a tool to control their people STOP Those same nations belong to the UN organization and favor America’s relinquishment of the Internet to the UN STOP To that end, a seemingly minor concession disturbs me: The recent conference at Dubai convened after taking a small step for regulatory control of the Internet, a concession supported by our Department of Commerce-a small step towards UN regulatory control, a large step onto the slippery slope toward eventual plenipotentiary control of the Internet by the UN organization instead of the United States STOP If that were to happen, goodbye to freedom of speech on the Internet STOP As you know, dear congressman and congresswoman, for several years American delegates to the United Nations, along with a few foreign allies, have voted against handing over Internet control to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), an arm of the United Nations or to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) STOP I urge you to stop any further concessions towards the eventual control of the Internet by any nation other than the United States STOP Remember that in 2012, the House of Representatives voted against UN regulatory control of the Internet, 397-0, a rare and inspiring bipartisan vote STOP Please follow its example and keep America in control of the Internet DON’T STOP!