An agreement to update 24-year-old United Nations telecommunications rules was approved against the opposition of countries including the United States and the United Kingdom, whose officials walked out on the talks on concerns about Internet regulation and censorship.
The new pact includes measures that would give countries a right to access international telecommunications services and the ability to block spam, which delegations declining to sign the amended text argued would pave the way for government censorship and control over the Web.
Canada, Denmark, Australia, Norway, Costa Rica, Serbia, Greece, Finland and others followed the US in refusing to sign on these grounds. The countries who won't sign the new treaty will continue to be bound by the 1988 version, said Sarah Parkes, a spokeswoman for the International Telecommunication Union.
"What is clear from the ITU meeting in Dubai is that many governments want to increase regulation and censorship of the Internet," Google Inc, the world's biggest search engine, said in a statement. "We stand with the countries who refuse to sign this treaty and also with the millions of voices who have joined us to support a free and open web."
Talks at the World Conference on International Telecommunications in Dubai this week were marked by disagreements between anti-regulation countries, including the US and many European states, and a group that argued for some Internet measures to protect and advance networks, including Russia, China and several Middle Eastern nations.
Google opposition
The conference has attracted criticism because of its one-country-one-vote model that ignores population size. Internet companies including Google have complained that they don't get a voice in the negotiations. While technology groups are allowed to participate in the discussions and have joined as parts of delegations, they don't get a vote in the proceedings.
"It's with a heavy heart and a sense of missed opportunity that the US must communicate that it's not able to sign the agreement in its current form," the US?delegation said in a statement at the plenary after the final changes were adopted last night. "We candidly cannot support an ITU treaty that is inconsistent with the multi-stakeholder model."
The International Telecommunication Union, a UN agency, earlier had agreed that no measures would be adopted that gave the body increased control over the Web or the member states the ability to censor content.