State official: Global talk could impose content controls on Web

by Sara Jerome - 06/11/10 5:44 PM ET

The same is not so in other negotiating countries, Verveer noted: “Some see the openness of the Internet as a threat to their regimes.”

Others are “troubled by the fact that something as important as the Internet is not subject to national control,” he said.

An additional consideration that might push some countries to favor new Web regulations is “an exaggerated sense that the U.S. controls the Internet,” Verveer said.

Verveer is the State Department’s coordinator for international communications and information policy. His career has spanned the Federal Trade Commission, the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission.

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