India Demands Plurality In Global Internet Management


NEW DELHI: India has opposed a move for Internet to be managed by Icann, which presently governs the domain names for websites, while favouring a multi-stakeholder model to oversee the world wide web.

"The Internet must remain plural. It must be managed by multi-layer and multi-stakeholder system," Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a video addressed to the meeting of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) that started Sunday in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

In the written comments to Icann over transition of Internet management, India has said that the new proposal runs the risk of placing complete reliance on internal accountability mechanisms within Icann as the principle of external accountability is absent from it.

Icann, a non-profit organisation incorporated in California, currently co-ordinates, manages and implements worldwide Internet rules and policies by taking views of global community.

It has been assigned the task to manage Internet by the US Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) under a contract, which expires on September 30.

NTIA has decided to step out of its role of Icann overseer after the contract expires and it be managed by global community and work is in progress to set rules on who should manage Internet post September 30.

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Source: PTI