Google is seen winning a propaganda victory against the efforts of the United Nations to regulate the web, but it currently seems that the International Telecoms Union, responsible for the changes, is fighting back. For a while, the efforts of the UN telecommunications body have been pitched as a cunning plan to enable the organization to bring in tough controls for Internet users.
The US made this claim – apparently, the country doesn’t want to give up its own control of the web under the bogus justification that it was the US who invented the Internet. However, the Secretary General of the UN telecommunications body told the press that the review of the 24-year-old telecom regulations would not harm the online freedom. The UN found such claims “completely unfounded” and being just a very cheap way to attack the World Conference on International Telecommunications, which is currently being held in Dubai in order to review regulations reached in 1988. The US says that it’s all part of a plan by autocratic regimes willing to filter the web.

However, UN Secretary General claimed that the UN must work together to try and find a way to most effectively keep cyberspace open, accessible, affordable and secure. On the other hand, industry observers believe that part of the problem is that the United Nations is a global outfit which wants everyone to use the web, and in order to make sure that poor countries can afford this, the United Nations wants to tax multinational giants and pay for these projects. The list includes Google. Perhaps, that’s why the company has been vocal in warning of serious repercussions on the proposals if those are approved. Although Google never mentioned the tax, it still claimed that it was all about allowing filtering over legal material.

The search giant claimed that the International Telecoms Union isn’t the right body to address online regulation. The American press also hinted darkly that the event is hosted by the UAE – the country that does filter online content in order to block political dissent and sexual content.

But if the event were being held in the headquarters of the United Nations in New York, Google couldn’t have found anything to point at. Still, if one looks at the social networking portals, it would become clear that Google is currently winning this propaganda war, because most perceptions are that is about filtering – but in actual fact it appears to be about taxing the search giant to pay for 3d world web development.