"Africans shouldn't find themselves in a situation where ICANN is fully liberalized or privatized; without a proper planning that will ensure equal and balance participation of all countries and ensure that those plans do not undermine the stable and effective oversight of the internet DNS system," said Abulkhirat.

At the World Summit on Information Society in 2003, most African countries seemed convinced that the International Telecommunications Union would be a better manager of the Internet, but that view has changed.

The international nature of operations at ICANN formed the basis for arguments by those opposing ICANN at the WSIS in 2003 and in 2005. It was felt that ICANN was susceptible to control by the U.S. government and did not incorporate the views of poor countries as much as ITU would.

In the past few years, however, ICANN has engaged in more outreach to Africa, working to raise awareness within government and ICT circles about its role in Internet management.