We’re trying to stop the UN from regulating the Internet, Ambassador Kramer says

From Fox:

A U.N. conference that kicked off today in Dubai has sparked fear of Internet censorship in the U.S. -- something U.S. Ambassador Terry Kramer said he is doing everything in his power to prevent. 

“Nothing regarding the Internet do we want subject to U.N. review and regulation,” Kramer told FoxNews.com. 

Monday marked the first day of an 11-day conference. Kramer, who leads the U.S. delegation at the conference, said that the first day had “gone well” and so far delegates are “still in the early stage, talking about what should be reviewed when.” No specific regulations have been debated yet.

But regulations likely to come up soon are far reaching with signification ramifications, ranging from changes to the way web addresses like ".com" are distributed to charging websites for sending information (for example, a company like Google or Amazon could be required to pay cable companies a charge every time someone used their site.) 

“[Proposals] on content review and on pricing the transfer of content, which would essentially tax the Internet… we are actively opposing those,” Kramer said. 

While almost all of the U.N. meeting is secret, many documents have leaked, including one proposal from the Russian delegation declaring "the sovereign right … to regulate the national Internet segment." 

It echoes a call from Russian President Vladimir Putin last year calling for “global control over such [Internet] exchange. This is certainly a priority on the international agenda.” 

Kramer said the Russian proposal worried him.