Google and Mozilla have expressed apprehensions that the ‘closed-door meeting’ of the world’s governments being held in Dubai under the auspices the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has the hidden agenda of curbing the freedom of internet.

“A closed-door meeting of the world’s governments is taking place in Dubai, and regulation of the Internet is on the agenda. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is convening a conference from December 3-14 to revise a decades-old treaty, in which only governments have a vote.”, said Vint Cerf, VP and chief Internet evangelist at Google.

He said that some proposals could allow governments to justify the censorship of legitimate speech, or even cut off Internet access in their countries,Expressing the same concerns Harvey Anderson of Mozilla has criticized the closed-door nature of the ITU discussions. "Obscurity has cloaked the upcoming meeting, much of the process leading up to it, and most of the preparatory documents," he said. "The process appears to cater to only the most powerful interests”, he said.

The meeting also got flak from CDT policy analyst Ellery Roberts Biddle also condemns the proposed changes. "Through extending the regulatory framework of the ITRs to the Internet, the ITU Member States will mitigate the Internet's growth and inhibit the Internet's impact on economies and societies around the globe," she said in her comments posted to the ITU website asserts.

Meanwhile reacting to the this criticism on controlling or curbing internet freedom the head of the UN telecommunications body, Hamadoun Toure, said such claims are "completely unfounded.

"Nothing can stop the freedom of expression in the world today, and nothing in this conference will be about it," he told AFP.