Veni Markovski, chair of the Internet Society of Bulgaria, and a board member of ISOC-NY, has issued a white paper criticizing the ICANN obsession of many participants in the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Rio last year.

Veni points out that, while countries in which the internet is still under-developed are much concerned with regulation, that is not an issue with those that are more advanced. Their concern is further development and improvement. However, it was the former that dominated the agenda at the expense of the latter.

Veni notes that in Bulgaria, who long ago settled on acceptance of ICANN’s role in DNS/IP matters, the Internet Society has been able to focus, partly through promoting deregulatory legislation, on promoting access to the Internet, access to knowledge, free and open source software usage, lighter copyright regimes and open licensing. The result is that today Bulgarians enjoy some of the free-est, fastest and cheapest access in the world.

Veni concludes by challenging all participants to ignore the ICANN red herring and prioritize ensuring the Internet reaches the 5 billion people who are still not online.