US to hand over remaining control of internet address system
15 Mar 2014
The US said it planned to hand over control of the system for assigning website addresses to a non-government entity, the final phase in an effort to fully privatise and globalise management of the internet's backbone, Bloomberg reported.
The US was fulfilling a pledge it made in 1998 to give up control of the internet's domain-name system.
The contract that the ICANN-affiliated Internet Assigned Numbers Authority had with the government would be allowed to expire on 30 September, 2015, according to Lawrence Strickling, administrator of the US Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).
Bloomberg quoted Strickling as saying on a conference call that the department would not accept a proposal that replaced the NTIA role with a government or inter-governmental organisation.
It was not yet clear what groups would take over the responsibilities for maintaining the unique codes and numbering systems used in technical standards that underpinned the internet.
Fadi Chehade, president and chief executive officer of Los Angeles-based ICANN said he was confident companies and nonprofit groups with the proper qualifications would develop a transition process without disrupting internet operations.
Meanwhile, the US government's plan to give away authority over the internet's core architecture to the ''global Internet community'' could endanger the security of both the internet and the US and open the door to a global tax on web use.
Former Bush administration state department advisor Christian Whiton told The Daily Caller that US management of the internet had been exemplary and there was no reason to give this away - especially in return for nothing.
He added, this was the Obama equivalent of Carter's decision to give away the Panama Canal - only with possibly much worse consequences.
The US Commerce Department announced yesterday that it planned to give up control of The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organisation charged with managing domain names, assigning internet protocol addresses and other crucial web functions after the expiry of its contract next year.
Responding to increasing criticism from the global community over sweeping National Security Surveillance programmes leaked by former agency contractor Edward Snowden, the administration gave in to allegations of exercising too much influence over the web through ICANN, which designated the roadmap from web-connected devices to websites and servers across the globe.
According to Whiton, while the Obama administration said it was merely removing federal oversight of a non-profit, it should be assumed that ICANN would end up as part of the UN.
He added, if the UN gained control over what amounted to the directory and traffic signals of the internet, it could impose whatever taxes it liked.
It would likely start with a tax on registering domains and expand from there.
