[OT] ICANN to move to multi-staker body and fear of censorship by Governments.
Hi all,
Recently there was an announcement that ICANN operations would no
longer be a U.S. body but will have multi-stakeholder with governments
having more of a say. This is a not a new idea but has been in the
water for quite sometime. See -
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/03/in-sudden-announcement-us-to-give-up-control-of-dns-root-zone/
for a backgrounder.
It recently became news as it is now being shared in mainstream news
and September 30, 2016 is the new date set.
http://indianexpress.com/article/explained/soon-the-net-will-be-free-of-us-control-have-new-governors-in-new-icann-who-can/
The Hindu however has more of an inside scoop of the real reasons for
the hand-over, Snowdem relevations being part of it -
http://www.thehindu.com/business/quietly-symbolically-us-control-of-the-internet-through-icann-just-ended/article8357537.ece
Business standard also has some interesting comments -
http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/yes-icann-116031300643_1.html
"Meanwhile, the likes of Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted
Cruz complain that allowing Russia, China and other authoritarian
regimes a say jeopardises free speech online." - Business Standard
As it exists today, say in India, while censorship is there, it
exists only as hod-podge. Different ISP's censor different things. So
let's say if I want to visit kat.cr (a torrrent site) if one ISP
doesn't work, I can use another and get my thing done. But with this
move, the possibility might be that all ISP's would have to bow down
to powerful interests. Only few people who use and understand tor
would be able to get away with seeing and using stuff which otherwise
would have error 404 or Department of Telecommunications notice as the
site resolves via BSNL.
And while KAT maybe a bad example, it could also be parts of Wikipedia
, pages/links which may have controversial content - for example both
race and abortion are some of the hot topics for some people in the
U.S. whereas Dalit and Kashmir are sensitive topics in India today.
What are people's thoughts on this, too much ado abot nothing or do
people think there is something to worry about ?
In someways it is very similar to the net neutrality debate which
happened due to Facebook Free Basics but much more insidious as
governments can be as opaque as a private company if it wants to.
Look forward to comments.
--
Regards,
Shirish Agarwal शिरीष अग्रवाल
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