A growing number of countries, including China, Brazil, India and Cuba — as well as the European Union — are questioning U.S. control over the Internet.
The Internet is managed by a nonprofit private organization called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann, set up by the U.S. Department of Commerce in 1998 and based in Marina del Rey, Calif. Icann has an international advisory body, but the U.S. government retains veto power over all decisions — such as the creation of new Web domains.
Icann oversees domain names, a database of Web addresses and other standards. Such measures ensure, for example, that a user plugging in a Web address will connect to a single Web site with that name. Though arcane and out-of-view of users, the procedures are critical to making the Internet work.
Read Frederick Kempe’s take on what’s behind the trans-Atlantic dispute over Internet governance.But several countries, led by developing nations, now argue that since the Internet is a global tool, no one country should control it. They contend that decisions should fall under the jurisdiction of an international body, such as the United Nations. Their argument received an unexpected boost late last month when an EU commissioner proposed removing U.S. oversight of Icann, reversing the EU’s support of the current arrangement.
The proposal was met by a storm of criticism from surprised U.S. officials, as well as from some European companies that worried such a change would politicize the Internet, add bureaucracy and hinder its innovative nature.
“We look at the Internet’s success and want to make sure we keep the recipe for it,” said David Gross, the lead U.S. negotiator on the matter, in an interview. “If you modify it, the risk is that you come out with something far worse.”
Viviane Reding, the EU commissioner for Internet and media affairs who made the proposal, told the BBC in a recent interview: “There must not be any government involvement in the day-to-day management of the Internet, neither one of the U.S. government nor by any other government.”
A U.N. information society summit to take place in Tunis, Tunisia, in mid-November will address the issue.
More here.