Do you like free speech? Do you like the internet?

Would you like to see both of them go away?

A global summit scheduled in December may result in a proposal to put the Internet under United Nations control — an idea that has met solid resistance from the United States.

The same United Nations with members such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, China, Sudan, and Cuba? Yeah, we know just how much THEY love free speech, don't we?

"There are some countries that have been very adamant to get their governments to play a bigger role in Internet management," said Ambassador David Gross, the State Department's coordinator for international communications and information policy. He is leading the U.S. delegation to the World Summit on the Information Society, scheduled to meet Dec. 10-12 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Yeah, because some countries can't stand allowing people to say what they want to.

The WSIS, sponsored by the International Telecommunications Union (search), the United Nations' key agency on telecommunications, will bring together more than 50 heads of state, along with an expected 5,000 to 6,000 government, business and non-profit representatives from across the globe to discuss in part the yawning telecommunications gap between emerging economies and the developed world.

Putting the net under UN control won't get communications to anyone. If the UN can't even get food to many parts of Africa, how the hell are they supposed to get phone lines to them?

The effort for global control of the Internet is reportedly led by China, which allows its own citizens online access, but it is tightly controlled by a giant firewall and monitored by government surveillance.

China has so far been joined in its efforts by representatives of Syria, Egypt, Vietnam and South Africa, said Ronald Koven, European representative for the World Press Freedom Committee, an international media watchdog based in the United States.

Other reports indicate that Russia, India, Saudi Arabia and Brazil may be on board, too.

I don't think much more has to be said about those countries, do you? These countries want to strangle much of the content on the net, but they can't control it, so they can't kill it. Giving the internet to countries like China would effectively kill our right to free speech.

Lets get this straight right now: The USA is one of the few, if not the ONLY country that recognizes the right of free speech. Try saying a christian or jewish prayer in downtown Riyahd and see what happens. Walk around China and say "Down with the Communists" and see how long it takes for you to lose your head. These countries are furious that we, as Americans, can put up websites on whatever we want, saying whatever we want, and they're even MORE pissed off that their citizens can get online and see what we're saying. They want it stopped.

Should China ever get control of the net, sites like this one, or DU for that matter, are history. Gone. Good bye, thanks for playing, but it's all shut down now. France brings authors up on "hate speech" charges if they write a book that isn't politically correct enough. Cuba regularly jails dissidents. North Korea simply kills anyone that doesn't agree with "Dear Leader" Kimmy Dimmy Ding Dong. Do you really want those people in control of the internet?

Nope, neither do I. If they try to implement this, the USA should tell the UN to take a hike.

Hat tip to Kim du Toit, who has already offered to help pay for moving vans should the UN decided to move out of the USA. I'll chip in a few bucks myself, Kim.