China To Bypass ICANN?
China To Bypass ICANN?
March 7, 2006: China is once again making headlines this morning with the news that it is setting up native alternatives to top-level internet domains such as .com and .cn.
A Chinese publication, the People’s Daily, says that China has set up new Chinese character domains dot-China, dot-com and dot-net to circumvent the U.S controlled International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
The People’s Daily hints towards this saying: "Internet users don't have to surf the Web via the servers under the management of the ICANN of the United States."While the Chinese Officials insist that the move is benign, it has got some analysts sweating that it could further increase the Governments control over the flow of information and even potentially be a step towards an independent “Chinese Internet".
However, because the Chinese Government already censors ICANN-linked root servers inside its borders, officials say that the move is driven by the desire to make the internet more accessible to Chinese speakers than challenging ICANN.
Pressure has been growing for the control of ICANN to be handed over to the UN with the European Union, China, Brazil and Iran all seeking to play greater roles in ICANN’s management. China’s move to create alternative domains will certainly bring the issue into the spotlight once again at the next ICANN meeting in Wellington, New Zealand later this month.
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