[governance] FWD: United States Strives to Maintain Internet Dynamism

[Robert Guerra]

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http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile- 
english&y=2005&m=October&x=20051006161713cmretrop0.1097986&t=livefeeds/w 
f-latest.html

06 October 2005
United States Strives to Maintain Internet Dynamism

Negotiations enter final phase as Information Summit approaches

By Charlene Porter
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington – U.S. officials are engaged in ongoing talks with other  
governments, private enterprise and nongovernmental organizations  
working to craft an agreement on the future of Internet governance  
for presentation at the World Summit on the Information Society  
(WSIS) to be held in Tunis, Tunisia, November 16-18.

Discussions continue after a preparatory conference ended in Geneva  
September 30 without agreement to bridge diverse positions on how, by  
whom and to what degree the Internet should be governed or regulated.

The governance issue has come to the forefront in the ongoing talks,  
but the summit process was conceived by the United Nations General  
Assembly as a forum for discussions about giving broader access to  
the benefits of information and communications technologies to all  
the world’s peoples.

The first round of WSIS was held in Geneva in December 2003.

U.S. SEEKS DIVERSITY IN INTERNET GOVERNANCE

In a Washington press briefing October 6, U.S. Coordinator for  
International Communications and Information Policy David Gross said  
the United States is supporting what he called a “bottom-up” form of  
governance, allowing diverse parties to have a voice in technical  
regulation of the Internet.

“Governance now is very participatory, involving civil society,  
private enterprise, academics, technical [groups],” Gross said. He  
contrasted that approach to the “top down” proposal for governance  
submitted by a group of European nations.

“We see the European proposal as putting a damper on that  
extraordinarily participatory approach,” Gross said, “and instead  
ceding control to some sort of amorphous intergovernmental group made  
up by countries such as Iran [and] Cuba.”

Gross predicted that the support the European proposal is receiving  
from nations not known for freedom of expression suggests that such a  
governing structure would lead to restrictions in content on the  
Internet.

U.S. officials also balk at the idea of an expanded governmental  
structure overseeing Internet operations because of the ever- 
expanding size, access and activity in cyberspace.

PRIVATE SECTOR LEADERSHIP

Existing private sector leadership of the Internet is a “proven  
success,” according to Michael Gallagher, administrator of the  
National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

“Governments are not capable of change at a rapid enough level to  
meet the demands and the growth that we’ve seen in the Internet,”  
Gallagher said at the briefing. “But the private sector has answered  
the call.”

The Internet is expanding at a rocketing rate, with the number of  
world users increasing from 16 million in 1995 to 888 million in  
2005, according to statistics supplied by the U.S. Commerce  
Department, the NTIA parent agency.

At the same time use increases, so does abuse, officials acknowledge,  
citing the heightened occurrence of unwanted e-mail, commonly known  
as "spam" and malicious virus. Such exploitation of the technology  
arises from the private sector, but so do protections and solutions,  
Gallagher said.

“Each time a threat has emerged – virus, malicious code – the answer  
has come from the private sector,” he said. “No government, no  
bureaucrat has come forward with an answer.”

INTERNET SECURITY, STABILITY

U.S. officials also want to prevent an intergovernmental panel from  
assuming control of the Internet domain naming system (DNS).

DNS is the system that allows online users to name Web pages and e- 
mail boxes and allows Internet applications to read and recognize  
those names so users can reliably navigate online.

This system relies on 13 root servers that are privately operated  
computers containing the files that list names and numeric Internet  
protocol addresses of the DNS servers for all top-level domains  
(TLDs) such as dot-org, dot-com, dot-edu, dot-int and others.

Established by the U.S. Commerce Department in 1998, the Internet  
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) decides what goes  
in those files.

The U.S. position in the WSIS talks recognizes the interests  
governments have in managing their country code top-level domains,  
and expresses commitment to working with governments to address  
sovereignty concerns and at the same time ensuring DNS stability.

Ensuring security and stability of the Internet in order to further  
its dynamic growth is a keystone of the U.S. position, and officials  
say maintaining the current DNS system is important to that goal.

While the governance issues are causing debate now in the WSIS  
process, Gross said he’s also listening to African delegates who  
participated in the Geneva talks.

“Their message is, ‘don’t get distracted by this Internet governance  
that won’t add one more Internet customer to the continent of Africa.  
Help us focus on implementation, help us focus on growing the  
Internet.’ That’s what they want,” Gross said.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International  
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http:// 
usinfo.state.gov)


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