It’s no secret that many countries want greater control over the internet than they have under the current, US-centric model.
However, France is demanding more influence for a very specific (if not entirely unexpected) reason: wine. The country isn’t happy that the overseer for internet addresses, ICANN, is launching .vin and .wine top-level domains without letting other countries ask for usage restrictions. Government ministers are worried that this lets site owners violate international food naming agreements with impunity — an American company might use champagne.wine to sell sparkling drinks that don’t come from French soil, potentially hurting sales of the real deal.
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