In relation to the debate over whether and how the U.S. should hand over control of the root zone (IANA) functions of the Internet to an independent, multistakeholder organization like ICANN, the Obama administration (and many others) have been adamant that they "are not turning the Internet over to the United Nations!" We absolutely will not allow that to happen, they insist.
And I give them credit for wisely and uncharacteristically (for this administration) understanding the problem with turning Internet governance over to the United Nations.
The long-term problem, as I have argued previously, is that independent multistakeholder organizations set up to do technical functions that are of interest to the global community have a habit of getting absorbed into the United Nations system.
Here is a list of such organizations that have ended up as "specialized agencies" in the UN system, despite the fact that there was no compelling reason why that function needed to be subject to the rules and governance of a UN organization. Tourism, really? The first date is the date of the treaty the function of which the organization was set up to administer, the second date is the date the precursor organzation was incorporated, and the third date is the date when the organization became part of the UN system. And it's an incomplete list.
| Name | Treaty | Precursor | UN |
| World Meterological Organization (WMO) | 1873 | 1949 | 1951 |
| World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) | 1893 | 1967 | 1974 |
| International Telecommunications Union (ITU) | 1865 | 1932 | 1947 |
| Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) | 1943 | 1945 | |
| Universal Postal Union (UPU) | 1874 | 1948 | |
| World Trade Organization (WTO) | 1948 | 1995 | |
| World Health Organization (WHO) | 1907 | 1948 | |
| World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) | 1925 | 1974 | |
| United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) | 1966 | 1985 |
For the purpose of this blog post, I am not "bashing" UN specialized agencies. I'm just pointing out that there plenty of agencies that have been set up to perform technical functions or to administer treaties that have ended up getting drawn into the UN system. There is every reason to believe that the IANA functions, which the ITU is already coveting and which many countries are already lobbying to be turned over to UN control, will eventually find their way there.
It could happen by ICANN becoming part of ITU, or part of the IGF, or all three of them getting rolled up into one big happy UN Internet agency, which is what I'd be working toward were I China, Russia, India, Brazil or Argentina and looking for a power play against the United States.
And once the US has given up these controls, no matter what promises or assurances the Commerce Department has been given, the US will not be able to claw them back once they fall into the gravitational field of the United Nations.
Just sayin.'