The way I had interpreted the statement “fears about a UN takeover of internet governance” was in terms of taking over FROM WHOM? In other words, are those fears that ICANN might lose its control over internet governance? Hence my question – whose fears?

Personally, I would sleep better with control of the internet in the hands of the UN, rather than a semi-secretive ‘commercial’ company with serious accountability issues.

Regards,
Rui

there have been concerns about a possible extension of the ITU mandate to
cover Internet, DNS, IP address issues, etc, for years, from various self-regulatory bodies, but also some governments.
Former ITU Secretary General Yoshio Utsumi claimed an ITU role in IP addressing for some time, the start of the ITU IPv6 WG again led to concerns with the RIR community recently, especially when an ITU commissioned study
said there was a perceived need for a Country IP Address Registy model (CIR) and a role for the ITU to possibly step up to become the central allocation organization for CIRs.
This constant discussion has resulted in regular confirmations from ITU Secretary General
Hamadoun Touré that the ITU would in fact not “take over” the Internet.
One might question if the concerns or fears are reasonable or not, but the Secretary General’s reaction suggests that they are there, what do you think?

Best regards,

Monika Ermert

When you refer to a “fears about a UN takeover of internet governance”, whose fears are you referrng to and what are those fears?

Best regards,

Rui Correia