ICANN: Alternative Internet Risky
Unnamed countries have covertly sought to develop alternative versions of the Internet for political purposes, posing a potential threat to the Web.
CEO of ICANN Rod Beckstrom, told AFP on Wednesday that unnamed nations had tried to create parallel networks. However, Beckstrom suggested that they would likely remain with the original Internet in the end.
"It has been done," said Beckstrom. "We don’t speculate about who is doing it, it is really their private business."
He leads the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a California-based company that controls a master list of domain names and IP addresses known as "the root," which is vital for every Internet function.
Countless blogs have been buzzing with rumors accusing China and Russia of developing alternative Internet roots, meaning all requests would circumvent the ICANN system.
"People want to test their own capabilities to do these things and update their root zone files," said Beckstrom. "Some are concerned maybe for security reasons and some want to have alternatives in case any regional problems might arise and others might have political objectives."
Beckstrom emphasized that the goal of ICANN was "to keep everyone talking at the same table." He acknowledged that issues would surface should countries duplicate top level domains, such as .com, .cn or .net with new Web addresses.
"Conflicts would start to develop if we had a top level domain, and someone starts using a top level domain with different addresses and assignments. If it starts creating a conflict globally, that could be a problem," he said.
Beckstrom noted that this has not happened and it is not expected to. He was also quick to defend ICANN against accusations of it serving U.S. interests.
"I think the network effect of the Internet tends to keep people wanting to use the root," he said.
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