China's Draft Measures on Domain Names 'Contrary' to Global Internet Commitments, US Officials Say
The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s recent draft measures on China-based domain names “run contrary to China’s stated commitments toward global” multistakeholder Internet governance “as well as its stated goals for economic reform,” said NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
and State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary-Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs Daniel Sepulveda in a joint blog post Monday. The draft measures, originally released in March, would require all China-based domain names to be registered through government-licensed service providers that have established a domestic presence and “would impose additional stringent regulations on the provision of domain name services,” Sepulveda and Strickling said. “Whether driven by a motivation to increase control over Internet content in China or a desire to increase the quantity of Chinese-registered domain names, these regulations would contravene policies that have been established already at the global level by all Internet stakeholders (including Chinese). If put into effect, these regulations would have potentially large and negative repercussions for everyone.” The U.S. and other pro-multistakeholder Internet governance stakeholders have raised formal concerns about the draft measures, particularly a provision that some have interpreted as meaning “all websites with domain names registered outside China will be blocked, thereby cutting off Chinese Internet users from the global Internet,” Sepulveda and Strickling said. “While Chinese authorities have clarified that the intent of the article would be to prohibit access to Chinese-registered domain names that are acquired from registries/registrars that are not in compliance with Chinese regulations, concerns remain that the language in its current form is vague and open to differing interpretations.” The U.S. is also concerned about provisions that would force data localization and real-name verification for domain name registration, Sepulveda and Strickling said. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and two other GOP senators skeptical of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority repeatedly have raised concerns in recent months about ICANN’s engagement with China given the country’s track record on Internet governance issues (see 1602040061, 1603030067 and 1604040056). ICANN Board Chairman Steve Crocker told the senators last month that ICANN’s engagement with China “does not suggest any level of support for the nation’s government or its policies” (see 1604070033).