RIPE opposes China’s internet protocols upgrade plan

RIPE speaks out against China and Huawei’s ‘New IP’ internet upgrade plan, says internet standards should be left to the IETF, not the UN. EU-based Internet governance body RIPE is opposing a proposal to remodel core internet protocols, a proposal backed by the Chinese government, Chinese telecoms, and Chinese networking equipment vendor Huawei. Named ‘New IP,’ this proposal[1, 2, 3] consists of a revamped version of the TCP/IP standards to accommodate new technologies, a ‘shutoff protocol’ to cut off misbehaving parts of the internet, and a new ‘top-to-bottom’ governance model that centralizes the internet and puts it into the hands of a few crucial node operators.

The New IP proposal was submitted last year to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and brought to the public’s attention following a Financial Times report last month (paywalled, see alternative coverage here). The proposal received immediate criticism from the general public and privacy advocates due to its obvious attempt to hide internet censorship features behind a technical redesign of the TCP/IP protocol stack.

Source: zdnet.com