U.S Plans to Transfer Full Internet Control to Private Sector

The United States government plans to give up its control of the Internet to the private organization Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). While this could give opportunities for international cooperation over Web management, businesses still worry about censorship.

ICANN is a Los Angeles, Calif.-based non-profit private organization that oversees some Internet-related technical functions in behalf of the U.S government. The technical functions they manage serve as signposts to help computers trace or find legitimate servers and website. In 2006, it signed a contract with the U.S Department of Commerce (DOC) that allows the organization to fully manage the Internet system, yet allowing the government final oversight of some operations. This contract is expiring in 2015.

The government is renewing the contract and this decision is being criticized as it still gives the government authority over the Web. The unlikely use of authority was revealed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden made.

World Economic Forum senior director Alan Marcus told the Wall Street Journal that "the [National Security Agency] tarnished the U.S. stewardship" over the Internet.

In response to those issues, the U.S. government has decided to create a new structure that would oversee ICANN after end of contract. The new process will be launched later this month at an event in Singapore in hopes to collect input that would let them construct a new and better structure.

The new structure must ensure that the government will not have authority over ICANN, said Larry Strickling, administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration of the U.S. Commerce Department. Additionally, it must maintain a secured and stable Internet while keeping it open and free from censorship.

Though it favors the Internet industry, it threatens the business industry as there are issues about censorship.

Bill Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council, told WSJ, "If you hand over domain-name registration to someone who doesn't want certain classes of domains registered, then you're setting up a censorship structure."

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