Non-profit ICANN to be handed control of internet’s naming system by US government
The move has received criticism from politicians who said it will ‘significantly increase’ foreign governmental access to administration of the internet.
The United States government will hand over control of the internet’s Domain Naming System to Los Angeles-based non-profit, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers on October 1, PTI reported on Thursday. The handover of the system, which allows the pairing of Internet Protocol addresses with server names (such as 66.220.144.0 with Facebook.com), was originally agreed upon in 2014, with the US administration recently saying that it was satisfied with ICANN’s preparedness to handle the system.
The move has received criticism from local politicians, with a letter signed by several from the Republican Party saying it will “significantly increase the power of foreign governments over the internet”. However, experts in the matter have said the handover to ICANN will allow for the implementation of an internet governed by a “multi-stakeholder” approach. The transfer of the DNS will enable a “global solution for what has become a global asset”, said Professor Alan Woodward from the University of Surrey.
ICANN was originally created in 1998 and contracted by the US government’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration to take over the process assigning web addresses from the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority and its head, Jon Postel, who was also known as the “god of the internet”.