Oh so true. Once trust has been lost, the
demise is certain, and trust is disappearing rapidly. It’s actually somewhat
amazing that it (the internet) has lasted this long as a worldwide resource given
the state of affairs around the globe.
RR
From: Nnagain
[mailto:nnagain-bounces@lists.bufferbloat.net] On Behalf Of the keyboard of geoff goodfellow via Nnagain
Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2023
6:37 PM
To: Network Neutrality is back!
Letīs make the technical aspects heard this time!
Cc: the keyboard of geoff
goodfellow
Subject: [NNagain] Polarized world
threatens open internet: ICANN (AFP)
After 25 years of keeping the internet strong and stable,
the nonprofit ICANN -- responsible for its technical infrastructure -- is
warning that increasingly polarized geopolitics could start cracking the
foundations of the online world.
"It's super important to differentiate between what countries decide to do
with controlling content, as opposed to the technical infrastructure," the
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers' interim chief executive
Sally Costerton told AFP in a recent interview.
"The risk of fragmentation at the technical level is enormous. The
foundation crumbles and game over."
ICANN has managed the technical underpinnings of the internet since the group
was established in
"That has worked really well," Costerton said of the approach.
ICANN is best known for its work maintaining and expanding the internet address
system to new "domains" and languages from its early ".com"
days only employing the Roman alphabet.
But as online abuses -- from misinformation to hateful content -- have grown
more insidious, interest has heightened in giving governments more control of
the internet, including aspects that have previously been covered by ICANN.
Shifting control of the internet's infrastructure to governments and trade
groups, and shutting out the technical community, could crack its foundation,
Costerton warned.
But proposals have been circulating in the United Nations to give governments
and trade groups such clout, and such discussions are expected to come to a
head in 2025, according to ICANN.
"You start to damage the foundation by changing the way that internet
governance model works," Costerton said.
"It looks like a magic trick, but it's the product of hundreds of
thousands of people building trust in the technologies and each other."
While ICANN keeps the infrastructure on which the internet operates sound, it
has nothing to do with any digital content it supports, the executive noted.
"I can't actually remove something from the internet," the ICANN
chief said.
"The other thing is that ICANN is politically neutral, we can't take
sides."
Costerton worries that mindset would shift if governments had more control of
the internet infrastructure.
She also sees a threat from the unintended consequences of regulation in
countries intending to safeguard citizens from what is deemed undesirable
online content there.
"The internet was not designed on national borders, it's a global
resource," Costerton said.
"The minute you start to decentralize it, you're going to start to create
digital islands."
Essentially, the internet could be splintered as countries control what people
see online.
"We are living in an increasingly nationalistic, polarized world,"
Costerton said.
"If you want all that wonderful content, and you want the magic trick to
carry on, you must maintain the current trust-based model."
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