TECH The US government no longer controls the Internet By Lulu Chang Published October 03, 2016
The U.S. government just relinquished control over one very large entity -- the internet. As of Saturday, October 1,
the federal National Telecommunications and Information Administration
no longer exercises control over the Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers (ICANN), which has long been the manager of internet
domain names. But now, ICANN is truly an independent non-profit, free
from the oversight of the American government.
Instead, as an autonomous not for profit organization,
ICANN will now answer to international stakeholders across the internet
community, including a governmental advisory committee, a technical
committee, industry committee, internet users, and telecommunications
experts.
Lawrence Strickling, Assistant Secretary for
Communications and Information at the Department of Commerce, released a
brief statement early Saturday on the transition, saying simply. "As of
October 1, 2016, the IANA [Internet Assigned Numbers Authority]
functions contract has expired."
The decision to release ICANN from under the thumb of
the government has become a highly politicized issue, with some
lawmakers insisting that the move would be akin to the U.S. "giving away
the internet," and could serve as a threat to First Amendment rights.
But others say that these are misguided notions. As Ingrid Burrington,
an expert on the infrastructure of the internet noted, critics of the
deal are "under the impression that we owned the Internet to begin with,
and we never really did … your Internet is going to keep working the
same way."
Stephen Crocker, ICANN's board chairman and one of the engineers
involved in the formation of some of the earliest internet protocols,
also applauded ICANN's newfound freedom. "This transition was envisioned
18 years ago, yet it was the tireless work of the global Internet
community, which drafted the final proposal, that made this a reality,"
he said in a statement. "This community validated the multi-stakeholder
model of Internet governance. It has shown that a governance model
defined by the inclusion of all voices, including business, academics,
technical experts, civil society, governments and many others is the
best way to assure that the Internet of tomorrow remains as free, open
and accessible as the Internet of today."
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