????雖然國際電信聯盟沒有權力在美國或者其它反對該方案的國家實行互聯網控制，關注這一進程的人士還是擔憂，一個隔離和受管制的互聯網體系的建立將破壞信息和商務的全球自由流動，以及某些跨境技術的發展，如云計算。格雷內爾預測，如果未能阻止這些管制努力，聯合國對互聯網的管轄權將緩慢但持續地增強。“國際電信聯盟可以發表報告，給出分享互聯網商務收入的百分比目標，”他說。“它能夠發布互聯網商務的全球稅收，允許貧窮國家受益于先進國家的電子商務活動。”

????互聯網在由下而上、集中化、共識驅動的模式下繁榮昌盛，而對聯合國由上而下地插手這一系統的擔憂超越了政治分歧。聯合國對互聯網的管制（特別是這種管制只需要簡單多數投票）威脅了“全球的自由和繁榮，”美國聯邦通信委員會（Federal Communications Commission）的共和黨委員羅伯特?M.麥克道維爾最近在華爾街日報發布文章寫道：“即使互聯網技術已經改善了數十億人口的生活，還是有一些政府覺得他們被排除在外，想要加強對互聯網的控制。”

????在美國眾議院通信委員會中占多數的共和黨員發布了一個備忘錄，稱聯合國的努力威脅了互聯網的分散結構里內嵌的“靈活性和創新”，那是互聯網在技術平臺和拓展商務和思想的自由流動的媒介的雙重身份下，迅速演化和生長的動力。

????與此同時，民主黨出身的聯邦通信委員會主席朱利葉斯?格納考斯基告訴參議院委員會，提議中的互聯網管制新方案是個“糟糕的主意，損害全球經濟，損害全球自由和民主。”高級政府官員也敲響了警鐘，他們在白宮科技政策辦公室（White House Office of Science and Technology Policy）的博客上寫道，聯合國的計劃將“把互聯網的未來交予政客、而不是創新者和專家來主宰。”

????然而直到現在，這一威脅并未引起公眾廣泛的關注。如同格雷內爾指出的：“互聯網已經成為我們日常生活的一部分，人們無法想象某個國際官僚機構能完全接管它。”國際電信聯盟的使命是“連接全世界…保護并支持每個人的基本通訊權力。”

????確保聯合國兌現誓言需要公眾的努力，最起碼需要去年冬天對《禁止網絡盜版法案》（Stop Online Piracy Act，SOPA）的群眾抗議所引發的那種規模的公眾動員和關注。

????While the ITU may not have the authority to impose controls over the Internet here or inside other resisting nations, those following the process fear the establishment of a separate, regulated Internet regime that would disrupt the global free flow of information and commerce, as well as the development of such cross border technologies as cloud computing. Grenell predicts a slow but steady gain of U.N. jurisdiction if these efforts aren't blocked. "The ITU can put out reports and mandate goals of what percent of commerce to share," he says. "It can issue a global tax on Internet commerce to allow poorer countries to benefit from those more sophisticated."

????Fears over top-down U.N. meddling in a system that has thrived under a bottom-up, centralized, consensus-driven approach cross the political divide. U.N. regulation of the Internet -- which requires just a simple majority vote -- threatens "freedom and prosperity across the globe," Robert M. McDowell, a Republican commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission, recently wrote in the Wall Street Journal. "Even though Internet-based technologies are improving billions of lives everywhere, some governments feel excluded and want more control."

????A memo issued by the Republican majority of the House communications subcommittee argues that the U.N. effort threatens the "flexibility and innovation" built into the Internet's decentralized structure, something that has enabled it to "evolve and grow so quickly, both as a technological platform and as a means of expanding the free flow of commerce and ideas."

????Meanwhile, FCC Chair Julius Genachowski, a Democrat, told a Senate committee that this proposed new layer of international regulation is "a bad idea, bad for the global economy, bad for freedom and democracy across the world." And senior administration officials sounded the alarm on the White House Office of Science and Technology blog, arguing that the U.N. plan would "put political dealmakers, rather than innovators and experts, in charge of the future of the Internet."

????So far, though, the threat hasn't caught widespread public attention. As Grenell notes: "The Internet is such a daily part of our lives that people can't fathom the idea that an international bureaucracy would be able to take it over." The ITU's stated mission is to "connect all the world's people..[to] protect and support everyone's fundamental right to communicate."

????Holding the U.N. to those words will require, at the very least, the kind of mobilization and attention generated by last winter's mass outcry over SOPA, the ill-fated Stop Online Piracy Act.