ICANN Control
A subject of much debate recently is the internationalization of the organization that controls the DNS naming system and IP address mapping infrastructure of the internet. Currently, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is responsible. However, one problem that many foreign nations have is that it is a US based company that has direct ties to the United States government. According to this article, the European Union along with other countries and political entities are threatening to literally fragment the internet if control isn’t handed over to some international body:
The European commission is warning that if a deal cannot be reached at a meeting in Tunisia next month the internet will split apart. . . .Viviane Reding, European IT commissioner, says that if a multilateral approach cannot be agreed, countries such as China, Russia, Brazil and some Arab states could start operating their own versions of the internet and the ubiquity that has made it such a success will disappear.
Not only is this a silly threat, but it shows a complete lack of understanding of what “control” in this particular context actually means. The control that ICANN possesses is of purely technical context. When you type a domain name into your browser, ICANN is responsible for coordinating the process of resolving that domain name into an IP address and ensuring universal connectivity. It is a centralized body created to maintain consistency in the protocols and processes that make up this system and it has absolutely nothing to do with the content or systems that literally make up front-end, visible piece of what is “the internet.” It is true that this should be controlled by some international body, but with a stable and working system already in place, it makes no sense to try and uproot this stability when the “control” being restructured isn’t anything that most average citizens even care about.
Let’s say the EU does actually act on this undoubtedly empty threat. They would essentially restructure the internet so that residents residing within the nations of the European Union would only be able to access websites that are located within these same nations. The result would be isolating and angering their own constituents because of a minimally important power struggle. That sounds logical to me. In truth the obvious, and probably inevitable course of action will be to gradually internationalize the responsibilities currently held by ICANN.
October 20th, 2005 at 1:16 pm
Isn’t this always the way? Those who make the laws haven’t the time to actually find out how the internet works and those who know the internet haven’t the time to make laws…