U.S. to relinquish remaining control over the Internet
By Craig Timberg, Friday, March 14, 2:19 PM
Pressure to let go of the final vestiges of U.S. authority
over the system of Web addresses and domain names that organize the Internet
has been building for more than a decade and was supercharged by the backlash
to revelations about National Security Agency surveillance last year.
“The timing is right to start the transition process,”
said Lawrence E. Strickling, assistant secretary of commerce for communications
and information. “We look forward to ICANN convening stakeholders across the
global Internet community to craft an appropriate transition plan.”
The practical consequences of the decision were not
immediately clear, but it could alleviate rising global complaints that the United States
essentially controls the Web and takes advantage of its oversight role to help
spy on the rest of the world.
The announcement essentially ruled out the possibility
that the United Nations would take over the U.S.
role, something many nations have advocated and U.S. officials have long opposed.
The looming change — if successfully executed — would end
or at least dramatically alter the long-running contract between the U.S.
Commerce Department and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers, a California-based non-profit group that goes by the acronym ICANN.
That contract is due to expire next year but could be extended if the transition
plan is not complete.
“I welcome the beginning of this transition process that
you have outlined. The global community will be included in full,” said Fadi
Chehade, president of ICANN.
Rumors that the U.S. government would step out of
its oversight role sparked concerns among those who long have maintained that
ICANN did not do enough to protect security online.
“To set ICANN so-called “free” is a very major step that
should done with careful oversight,” said Dan Jaffe, executive vice president
of the Association of National Advertisers. “We would be very concerned about
that step.”
Yet other groups saw the move away from U.S. oversight
as inevitable and expressed support for the process if it’s open and embraces
the needs of people who use the Internet around the world.
“This is a step in the right direction to resolve
important international disputes about how the Internet is governed,” said Gene
Kimmelman, president of Public Knowledge, a group that promotes open access to
the Internet.
Verizon, one of the world’s biggest Internet providers,
issued a statement saying, “A successful transition in the stewardship of these
important functions to the global multi-stakeholder community would be a timely
and positive step in the evolution of Internet governance.”
ICANN’s most important function is to oversee the
assigning of Internet domains — such as .com, .edu and .gov — and ensure that
the various companies and universities involved in directing digital traffic do
so safely. ICANN is midway through a massive and controversial expansion that
is adding hundreds of new domains, such as .book, .gay and .army, to the
Internet’s infrastructure.
It long has faced complaints that the highly profitable
domain name industry, which sells individual Web addresses for hefty markups,
had established practical control over ICANN, to the detriment of other users.
Rumors that the U.S.
government would relinquish control were enough to alarm some business leaders
on Friday.
Chehade addressed such concerns, saying, “Nothing will be
done in any way to jeopardize the security and stability of the Internet.”
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