ICANN chief expresses optimism that UN members will maintain current internet governance model, avoiding a fragmented “splinternet” scenario.
LISBON: The risk of the internet fragmenting into national “splinternets” will likely be averted in a UN vote next month, according to the head of the authority managing web addresses.
Kurtis Lindqvist, head of ICANN, told AFP that most countries now believe the current internet governance model has worked despite past scepticism.
UN member countries will meet on December 15-16 to review internet rules that have applied for the past two decades.
Some proposals call for control of internet address management to be taken away from US-based non-profit ICANN.
Pressure has built in recent years to transfer that power to governments and trade groups.
ICANN has warned such moves could lead to a fragmented “splinternet” where connecting across separate systems becomes expensive or impossible.
Lindqvist expressed “some careful optimism” that the existing system will remain in place.
He noted that “negotiations really start now” on the text to be adopted at the United Nations headquarters meeting.
ICANN coordinates global allocation of internet addresses, including web domains and IP addresses used by computers.
A single agreed-upon address system worldwide enables anyone to easily reach people elsewhere through websites or email.
The internet’s social and business benefits are “only possible because we have a uniform technical standard, we have uniform identifiers that are reachable throughout the entire internet,” Lindqvist said.
Fragmenting through barriers or policy actions would diminish this value creation, he warned.
Lindqvist added that the internet has been “so phenomenally successful that people are starting to take the internet for granted, and that’s the real risk.”
The ICANN chief called for the UN to end its practice of reviewing internet governance every 10 years.
He said the current governance model has been successful and “that seems to be agreed to by most member states.”
Regarding AI regulation, Lindqvist noted that “everything literally is on the table” in government talks.
From independent governance models to a dedicated UN AI agency, he observed the same spectrum of proposals as during the internet’s early development. – AFP
