Iran ICT Minister: No to Unilateralism in Cyberspace

EghtesadOnline: Rejecting unilateralism in regulating the Internet and in face of the growing dominance of ICANN over cyberspace, Iran’s ICT minister called on ITU member states to take a more dynamic role in managing cyberspace.

News ID: ۷۴۶۳۴۸

19 December 2018

ICANN which is short for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is an organization responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to namespaces and numerical spaces of the Internet. In October 2016, the US government handed the control of the net's address book to ICANN.

ITU or the International Telecommunication Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for issues that concern information and communication technologies, according to Financial Tribune.

Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, the minister, on Tuesday said, “Some ITU members prefer the UN agency only regulate communications. They rather not get involved with the introduction of legislation related to the Internet,” CITNA reported.

“They believe that ICANN, which is dominated by the United States, should regulate the Internet. This would be tantamount to unilateralism – an ism the world will obviously not accept. Even in Europe, there is resistance against (US) unilateralism.”

If all ITU members abide by this trend in the agency, in 10 years barley a handful of countries would be able to impose an ironclad grip over the Internet. He called on ITU members to take a more assertive role in regulating the Internet.

Jahromi was speaking at the 9th round of Iran’s International Symposium on Telecommunications (IST 2018) in Tehran. The three-day symposium opened on Monday.