Protecting the Internet from political agendas: Takeaways from the ICANN meeting

[Commentary] The recent Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) meeting in London highlighted two issues that appear unrelated on the surface but link current concerns about how to manage Internet Governance going forward.

One is the transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) stewardship away from the US Government, and the second is the Government Advisory Committee’s multi-meeting, dragged out discussion on .wine/.vin new Top Level Domains (TLDs).

We need to know that the European Commission and its government colleagues understand this is a technical coordinating organization. If governments are willing to bring an issue from outside of the technical functions of the Internet into ICANN, how do we trust them to keep the IANA function purely technical and to stay away from the temptation to use it as a political lever?

If France wants to protect its geographic indicators on wine labels, for instance, it needs to continue negotiations with its global partners in the world of trade agreements, not technical Internet functions. The temptation to settle a commercial trade issue through Internet Governance will be just the beginning of mass political misappropriation of the largest economic tool that we have seen in this century -- the Internet.

[Tews is Chief Policy Officer at 463 Communication]