Plan Would Give Government Virtual Veto Over Internet Governance 65
An anonymous reader writes The debate over Internet governance for much of the past decade has
often come down to a battle between ICANN and the United Nations.
The reality has always been far more complicated. The U.S. still
maintains contractual
control over ICANN, while all governments exert considerable
power within the ICANN model through the Governmental
Advisory Committee (GAC). Now governments are looking for even
more power, seeking a near-complete
veto power of ICANN decisions.
Does it matter? (Score:2, Insightful)
It's not like I can exert influence over either governments or the ICANN in any way, shape or form.
Re:So... Sorry, but no (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't know if I want some government who may not like my religion or race being able to stamp my website out of existence just because it doesn't jive with their dogma.
I'll take the current means. There is enough religious persecution without having countries knock you offline on the net.
Re:Does it matter? (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't know about you, but I would rather have the USA, despite all of its faults (and we have many), in control of these things instead of countries like Iran or North Korea.
Not packed enough? (Score:5, Insightful)
It sounds like the governments bent on censorship have managed to pack the ICANN board enough to get this proposal seriously considered but not enough that the ICANN board can't still usually override them:
ICANN is now proposing that the threshold be increased so that 2/3 of eligible ICANN board members would be required to vote against GAC advice in order to reject it
Why else would ICANN's own board even be considering giving this power away?
Re:Does it matter? (Score:3, Insightful)
It's considered broken by people who do get involved, because we have a crappy two party system where the two parties are nearly identical on the one front that truly matters: Fundamental and constitutional liberties. Those of us who vote third party realize that voting for the lesser of the two evil scumbags does not solve anything, and yet we are few.
In a democracy, and especially a two party cesspool like ours, you get the government that other people deserve.
Re:What power does the ICANN have (Score:2, Insightful)
There alternative DNS systems
That nobody but crazies and enthusiasts use.
Seriously, you're talking about a world where we haven't been able to get IPV6 up and running. Do you really think people are going to voluntarily switch roots, and put up with the catastrophic brokenness that would bring?
Re:Does it matter? (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course this is about power shifting towards governments in general. This is to be expected - after all, we can't just have random people running the internet and governments happen to be the very things that represent their countries internationally. I expect ICANN to become something like the ITU: A UN agency that handles infrastructure governance. That does seem to be the safest and fairest option. Do Iran and North Korea get a voice? Yes, they do, just as they should. But that doesn't mean they run the show.