ICANN, US Government Affirm Private Sector Lead in Domain Name Governance

The US government today agreed to loosen the sway it has long held over the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the private, non-profit body that oversees administration of the Internet’s addressing system. In a new “Affirmation of Commitments” with the Department of Commerce, ICANN agreed to create international review teams to assess its work and the US withdrew from its role overseeing ICANN’s procedures. “We’re pleased to see this reaffirmation of the bottom-up, private sector led model for governance of the domain names system,” said Jim Dempsey, CDT vice president for public policy. “The big remaining questions of accountability are how to create a system for appealing the decisions of the ICANN board and by what standard should such appeals be judged.”