A plan for a new internet domain for
pornography has once again been shelved, dealing another blow to the
US-backed addressing system that acts as the glue holding together the
unified global internet.

The setback is likely to add to pressure
stresses that could eventually fragment the internet, breaking it into
a collection of separate national systems, some internet experts
warned.

It
comes as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(Icann), the organisation that administers the current addressing
system under licence from the USCommerce Department, faces renewed
unrest over its slow progress towards introducing domain names in
languages other than English.

“If Icann and the US fail to
respond to growing global concerns around internet governance,
fragmentation is the likely outcome,” said Michael Geist, professor of
internet law at the University of Ottawa.

Pressure from
conservative Christian groups in the US, which has a veto over the
internet addressing system, led the organisation last year to put off
introducing a new “.xxx” domain for pornography on the internet. That
drew international complaints that the US exercised too much power over
the internet and added to a European-backed movement to shift control
of the online medium to an international group.

Supporters of the
.xxx address suffix argued that it would have helped to protect
children and others from accidental exposure to internet pornography,
particularly if stronger filters were used to screen out explicit
material from other internet domains.

Icann’s board decided to
delay the plan again on Friday at a meeting in New Zealand. The latest
hold-up was to allow time for the company which had applied to
administer the new domain to prove that it had adequate safeguards in
place, said Paul Twomey, ICANN’s chief executive officer.

However,
the plan also continued to attract broader opposition, with the US once
again understood to have lodged its opposition to the idea. This time,
ICANN also faced opposition from an unspecified number of other
governments. Although not having the veto power of the US, a government
advisory committee set up to respond to Icann proposals said “several”
of its members were against the idea.

The Australian government
has already spoken out publicly against an internet porn address, while
a report in New Zealand claimed that Iran was also opposed.

The
latest dispute over the internet’s addressing system comes as ICANN
faces growing pressure to extend its addressing system in scripts other
than roman, or which include accents. While conceding that the
organisation may have moved slowly on this issue in the past, Mr Twomey
said that it was moving ahead as fast as it could with technical tests
of an international naming system later this year.

Responding to
the risk that the delays might lead some countries to establish their
own addressing systems, effectively in effect creating rival internets,
he added: “Anyone can set up an alternative root system – the
difference is, our root is the one that a billion people follow.”

While
China has tested its own addressing system, it has so far done this
within the ICANN system, Mr Twomey said. “There is no sense that they
are talking about breaking themselves off from the global internet.
They are well aware of the benefits,” he added.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006