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fliptop [soylentnews.org] writes:

After 25 years of keeping the internet strong and stable, the nonprofit ICANN -- responsible for its technical infrastructure -- is warning that increasingly polarized geopolitics could start cracking the foundations of the online world [barrons.com]:

"It's super important to differentiate between what countries decide to do with controlling content, as opposed to the technical infrastructure," the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers' interim chief executive Sally Costerton told AFP in a recent interview.

"The risk of fragmentation at the technical level is enormous. The foundation crumbles and game over."

[...] But as online abuses -- from misinformation to hateful content -- have grown more insidious, interest has heightened in giving governments more control of the internet, including aspects that have previously been covered by ICANN.

Shifting control of the internet's infrastructure to governments and trade groups, and shutting out the technical community, could crack its foundation, Costerton warned.

[...] "We are living in an increasingly nationalistic, polarized world," Costerton said.

"If you want all that wonderful content, and you want the magic trick to carry on, you must maintain the current trust-based model."

Also at TechXplore [techxplore.com], MSN [msn.com] and DNyuz [dnyuz.com].

Related: ICANN Warns UN May Sideline Techies From Internet Governance [soylentnews.org]

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