U.N. Summit to Focus on Internet

Officials to Discuss Shifting of Control to International Body. Leaders from almost 200 countries will convene next week in Geneva to discuss whether an international body such as the United Nations should be in charge of running the Internet, which would be a dramatic departure from the current system, managed largely by U.S. interests. The representatives, including the heads of state of France, Germany and more than 50 other countries, are expected to attend the World Summit on the Information Society, which also is to analyze the way that Web site and e-mail addresses are doled out, how online disputes are resolved and the thorny question of how to tax Internet-based transactions. Many developing nations complain that the world’s most visible Internet governance body — the U.S.-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) — does not adequately represent their interests and should be scrapped in favor of a group allied with the United Nations.

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