I suspect very few Americans are aware that the “international community” is preparing a power grab of monumental significance—taking control of the internet’s root servers: Breaking America’s grip on the net. Britain’s al-Guardian rag thinks this is just groovy, of course.

Participating in the attempted coup: Brazil, China, Cuba, Iran, and several African states. Besides being abusers of human rights and enablers of terrorism, what else do most of these areas have in common?

Answer: their management of the internet in their own countries is totalitarian, censorious, but worst of all, totally inept. Huge amounts of spam email emanate daily from South America, China, and African countries.

In the early days, an enlightened Department of Commerce (DoC) pushed and funded expansion of the internet. And when it became global, it created a private company, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) to run it.

But the DoC retained overall control, and in June stated what many had always feared: that it would retain indefinite control of the internet’s foundation - its “root servers”, which act as the basic directory for the whole internet.

A number of countries represented in Geneva, including Brazil, China, Cuba, Iran and several African states, insisted the US give up control, but it refused. The meeting “was going nowhere”, Hendon says, and so the EU took a bold step and proposed two stark changes: a new forum that would decide public policy, and a “cooperation model” comprising governments that would be in overall charge.

Much to the distress of the US, the idea proved popular. Its representative hit back, stating that it “can’t in any way allow any changes” that went against the “historic role” of the US in controlling the top level of the internet.

But the refusal to budge only strengthened opposition, and now the world’s governments are expected to agree a deal to award themselves ultimate control. It will be officially raised at a UN summit of world leaders next month and, faced with international consensus, there is little the US government can do but acquiesce.