June 2014 – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has managed the Internet’s domain-name system under contract with the U.S. government for more than a decade. It is responsible for assigning, authorizing and protecting the names of each website on the Internet. But the Los Angeles-based company is working to transform itself into a global organization free of U.S. ties.
In March, the Obama administration made the decision to relinquish oversight of the group when the current contract expires in 2015. Exactly who would oversee ICANN is unclear, but conservatives warn the decision could allow the United Nations or authoritarian countries to step in and seize control of the up-to-now free Internet.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich tweeted, “Every American should worry about [President Barack] Obama giving up control of the Internet to an undefined group. This is very, very dangerous.” Other lawmakers have long warned about the dangers of ceding ICANN’s authority to the International Telecommunication Union, a U.N. agency. Senate Commerce Committee ranking member John Thune (R-SD) said, “There are people who want to see the Internet fall into the grip of the U.N. or who would allow ICANN to become an unaccountable organization with the power to control the Internet, and we cannot allow them to determine how this process plays out. I trust the innovators and entrepreneurs more than the bureaucrats – whether they’re in D.C. or Brussels.”
