Deal avoids global split over Internet control
Negotiators said they had struck an agreement on key clauses on Internet governance for endorsement during the World Summit on the Internet Society, which began in Tunis today.
A three-year deadlock in preliminary talks until the final hours of yesterday had revolved around Washington’s single-handed oversight of the private body that oversees the key technical and administrative roots of the global network.
Officials had warned that the Internet could have been torn into competing or disconnected networks if the sometimes bitter split had continued.
The agreement set up two parallel tracks of multilateral talks, including an open-ended process "towards enhanced co-operation" by "relevant international organisations" on oversight and public policy issues.
The new process will be triggered by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan in the first quarter of 2006, according to the final draft, but set no target for an outcome.
Despite sharp criticism, the private, non-profit, Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) was expected to have its tender renewed by the US government next summer, since nothing in the final draft ruled it out.
"We did not change anything on the role of the US government with regard to the technical aspects that we were very concerned about," top US negotiator David Gross said after the agreement struck between 170 countries.
?We saw the world’s countries recognising how very important the Internet is and how important the growth of the Internet is, and no one created a problem that could help retard that growth,? Gross, the US coordinator for international communications and information policy, added.
Countries such as Iran and China had sought UN oversight of ICANN or Internet governance, while the European Union wanted to water down US powers, but the US firmly objected.
The other track creates an Internet Governance Forum (IGF) for an initial five-year term to hold talks on all Internet issues, including problems such as as spam, cyber crime or computer viruses.
After a final session which saw US, Chinese and Iranian diplomats swapping suggestions for new wording, officials applauded efforts to widen the scope of formal discussion to industry and civil society.
The IGF, which Greece has offered to host, will also be allowed to "build on the existing structures of Internet Governance" but has no concrete powers.
"The worst has been avoided but we’re not sure that the best is to come in the future. We have left a door open," a member of the French delegation, Bernard Benhamou, said.
"We did not close the door to the essential part, international cooperation," he added.
UN Under Secretary General for Communications Shashi Tharoor said an agreement on Internet governance was ?crucial? to continue to build on freedom of expression on the global process.
"We need more voices in the process and we need more voices on the net," Tharoor told journalists, adding that it was "very important that the Internet remain a realm for freedom of expression and freedom of opinion".
Public policy issues include Internet resources, security of the network, and development issues, as well as ICANN’s role in allocating domain names and addresses. The forum, however, has a wider mandate.
Washington’s critics had warned that no single nation could maintain control over top level domain or country names – such as .cn, .fr and .uk – without the threat of it being misused to block a foe’s access to the Internet for political or economic reasons.
The US had warned that regimes that do not allow freedom of speech might instead be in a position to have leverage over the Internet.
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