ITWire

Beckstrom's warnings are the latest phase in battle over the Internet's future that has been raging for the past year, with much of the focus around the UN's Internet Governance Forum.

In an extraordinary meeting on 6 December 2010 the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) decided to create a Working Group on Improvements to the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) with a membership made up only of governments that are members of CSTD. This move incensed ICANN, ISOC and numerous other bodies and the CSTD eventually backed down, allowing non-government participation in the review.

Beckstrom had earlier warned that if governments got their hands on the Internet, "Most Internet users - businesses, service providers, non-profits and consumers - will be shut out of the governance debate."

Also in December last year, the new gTLD regime - which the globe-trotting Beckstrom is now championing - was still under development and ICANN was coming under heavy criticism from the US Government for, allegedly, failing to conduct a full cost-benefit analysis of the plan or to adequately address all the issues.