Canada’s CIRA Withdraws from ICANN

In a major defection, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) has suspended its involvement with Internet governing body ICANN pending process reforms.

In what might be a turning point in Internet governance, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) has suspended its involvement with ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. At issue: ICANN’s accountability, internal processes, and transparency.

CIRA was apparently pushed past the point of tolerance with the ICANN board’s recent approval of VeriSign’s continued control of the .com top-level domain space through at least the year 2012. ICANN has long been accused of being a tool of U.S. economic and foreign policy