back to article It's time for our annual checkup on the circus that is the Internet Governance Forum

It's March again so it must be time for an annual checkup on the Internet Governance Forum – the United Nations body that is tasked with working through the complex social, technological and economic issues associated with a global communications network, and runs an annual conference to that end. Around this time every year, …

  1. John Sager

    Isn't this SOP in the UN generally? They would be constitutionally incapable of doing anything useful anyway because of the completely diverse & irreconcilable views in the world of what the Internet is for and how it should be controlled.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The IGF and the UN should both be disbanded - they do nothing of any consequence and absorb a vast amount of money doing it.

    Both are well past their sell by date.

    1. Hollerithevo

      The whole UN?

      Unicef? Peace-keeping forces? World Health? I don't deny that the UN is feathered with idleness, pointlessness and corruption, like any other political institution, but I would rather have reform than deletion. Cut the Security Council, for one.

      1. Youngone Silver badge

        Re: The whole UN?

        As I am currently engaged in the task of watching "Yes, Prime Minister" again, I may be qualified to comment here.

        I would guess that these commitees are formed to be the public face of the anonymous public servants who actually make the decisions in private. Where decisions should be taken.

        As such, the commitees cannot be allowed to go around making decisions about things, because if they do, where would we be?

        Much better to give them something to really get their teeth into, like debating what the name of the conference ought to be.

  3. A. Coatsworth Silver badge
    Flame

    Circus?

    I think the proper term you're looking for starts with "cluster" and rhymes with "duck"

    I can't spell it here thanks to my computer's naughty-filters

    1. Proud Father

      Clusterfuck.

      There yer go.

  4. Mark 85

    Ah.. another excuse for a UN approved and funded jaunt to beautiful Geneva. Amazing how one organization can spend so much money, time, and hot air with nothing accomplished. Banish the whole lot.

    If the world deems Unicef, WHO, and maybe the legendary peacekeepers, worth the effort keep them but otherwise get rid of the whole mess. And if all countries are doing by having a UN presence is giving some pompous and boring bureaucrats a job, give them one in their home country.

  5. Yes Me Silver badge
    Happy

    So much the better

    "A request to discuss the long-asked-for reforms is blocked, delayed or otherwise dispensed with."

    This is a problem? The longer the IGF fails to do anything, the better. It's been a useless talking shop since Day 1, and that is its value: it prevents inter-governmental interference with the Internet. (Government interference with the Internet inside each country is a different matter, and each country deals with it in its won way.)

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