Viewpoint Internet freedom means keeping ICANN independent of governments

摘要

After thirteen years of existence, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is still controversial. ICANN was initially conceived in 1998 during the Clinton Administration, as an attempt to "privatize" governance of the domain name system. ICANN put in place a system of global governance that was outside of the traditional intergovernmental model, and more or less in line with Internet community norms of open, private sector-based, multi-stakeholder governance. Its form of governance was not territorial and nation-based, but contractual and transnational. Yet more than a decade later, we are still having fundamental debates about the role of territorial governments in ICANN. The significance of this debate goes well beyond the governance of domain names, involving by implication governments' role in Internet governance more generally.1