American tech companies are increasingly wary of a growing movement to hand control of the Internet over to the United Nations, led by China, Russia and Arab states. They are worried that this could empower foreign governments to restrict free speech and civil rights, not to mention negatively affecting the bottom line for Silicon Valley giants including Google and Microsoft.

Those opposed to the movement say that the Web could be made to look dramatically different in countries outside of the US – we’re talking restrictions on Google search results and governments tracking civilians by way of their Internet usage.

In a rare show of solidarity, tech companies Google, Microsoft, Verizon and Cisco are warning of the financial risks that their businesses would all be placed under, should new foreign regulations be placed on the Web. Their principle concern seems to be the introduction of tariffs by other nations on US Internet service providers.

It may sound a little like a conspiracy theory by corporate heavyweights, but there is some evidence that US tech companies have legitimate worries. To date, Russia has suggested cutting off access to the Internet for users who threaten network security, while some Arab nations have called for privacy protections for users.

Google vice president Vint Cerf says:

Such proposals raise the prospect of policies that enable government controls but greatly diminish the ‘permissionless innovation’ that underlies extraordinary Internet-based economic growth, to say nothing of trampling human rights.

[Source: Washington Post]