France blasts US nonprofit as unfit for Internet governance
France strongly attacked the US-based nonprofit body that assigns Internet addresses on Wednesday, saying it was not a fit venue for Internet governance and that alternatives should be sought.
The eurozone's second-largest economy has been at war with the body, which assigns domain names like '.com' and runs crucial Internet infrastructure, over the ".wine" and ".vin" that are suffixes being rolled out as part of an unprecedented expansion of domains.
On Wednesday, France failed in a bid to freeze the assigning of the domains by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which it believes should be restricted to protect trade agreements on region-specific products like champagne.
"ICANN's procedures highlight its inability to take into account the legitimate concerns of states," the French delegation to ICANN's 50th meeting, taking place in London, said in a statement.
"Today ICANN is not the appropriate forum to discuss Internet governance."
Future governance
France will initiate discussions with European countries and other stakeholders on the future of Internet governance, the statement said.
ICANN did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But earlier this week, ICANN President Fadi Chehade said that France had not yet exhausted all avenues to voice its concerns, and that it should do so. "We all get frustrated sometimes when we don't get the conclusion that we want," he said.
Chehade was responding to criticism by France that ICANN lacked accountability and redress mechanisms to challenge its decisions.
A private nonprofit corporation, ICANN is governed by a 21-member board made up of representatives from the domain name industry and other stakeholders, with global governments each represented by one member.
The United States opted to end its oversight powers over the body earlier this year, while governments including Russia have pushed for greater oversight by states over the body.
(China Daily 06/27/2014 page10)
