EU calls for ICANN independence

 

Gallery

Posted on 5 May 2009 at 10:50

The EU wants to see The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) shorn of its ties to the US Government, and be made fully independent.

ICANN is the body in charge of assigning Internet addresses such as .com and .net, and though it's a not-for-profit organisation it operates under the aegis of the US Department of Commerce.

This set-up has earned the ire of the European Union's information commissioner, Viviane Reding, who cited the pressure on ICANN from right-wing politicians to stop .xxx from becoming a domain name for pornography, as evidence the body needs to become independent.

ICANN's operating agreement with the US government expires at the end of September, meaning that come October it could be cut free.

"This opens the door for the full privatisation of ICANN and it also raises the question of to whom ICANN should be accountable, as from 1 October," says EU Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding.

She has urged US President Barack Obama to agree to a "new, more accountable, more transparent, more democratic and more multilateral form of internet governance."

Reding wants ICANN to be overseen by an independent judicial body as well as a "G12 for Internet Governance" to discuss Internet and security issues.

"In the long run, it is not defendable that the government department of only one country has oversight of an internet function which is used by hundreds of millions of people in countries all over the world," says Reding.

Such a "G12" would include two representatives from each North America, South America, Europe and Africa, three representatives from Asia and Australia, as well as the chairman of ICANN as a non-voting member.