The signing of an accord with the Internet regulator Icann on Wednesday will see the US government set to reduce the level of control it currently has over the running of the broadband internet.
For the first time Icann will apparently be able to run its affairs on its own following the “Affirmation of commitments”. Many countries around the world had already criticised the close oversight of Icann that was given to the US government from previous agreements.
Calls for Icann to become “universally accountable” and for the US to release its control over the regulator were called for earlier in the year by the EU.
It said “The US government is the only body to have had formal oversight of Icann’s policies and activities since its inception in 1998. The Commission believes that Icann should become universally accountable, not just to one government but to the global internet community. This is particularly relevant given that the next billion of broadband internet users will mainly come from the developing world.”
Thursday is the date that the current agreement is due to expire between the US Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number (Icann).
The overseeing of critical parts of the internet, like the top-level domain (TLD) name system, which will include .uk and .com, was the primary role of the not-for-profit private sector corporation that was set up by the US government.
Companies were recently allowed to their brands into web addresses and individuals were able to user their own names for addresses following a vote by the body to relax the strict rules that had been imposed on TLDs. The introduction of domain mains written in Arabic, Asian and various other scripts were also recently agreed by Icann.
Source – BBC