The United States announced its intent to relinquish control over the Internet and said it is ready to hand it over to a multi-stake holder community.
According to BBC, the U.S. Commerce Department has asked the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to work out modalities of the transfer of control. The department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) contracts with ICANN to manage the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).
In an official release, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information Lawrence E. Strickling, said, "The timing is right to start the transition process." He added, "We look forward to ICANN convening stakeholders across the global Internet community to craft an appropriate transition plan."
The Telegraph reported that in recent years, the ICANN has come under intense criticism for allowing the U.S. to influence its operations.
BBC quoted ICANN board's chairman Stephen Crocker as saying, "We have all long known the destination. Now it is up to our global stakeholder community to determine the best route to get us there."
PCMag described the details of the change ICANN is set to architect. It said that NTIA seeks to have broad community support while addressing problems like maintaining Internet openness. NTIA also asked ICANN to "maintain the security, stability, and resiliency of the Internet DNS and Meet the needs and expectation of the global customers and partners of the IANA services,"
"Consistent with the clear policy expressed in bipartisan resolutions of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives affirming the United States support for the multi-stakeholder model of Internet governance, NTIA will not accept a proposal that replaces the NTIA role with a government-led or an inter-governmental organization solution," NTIA said in the release.
The changes will however not take place immediately as the IANA contract expires on September 30, 2015. NTIA's current role will remain unchanged during the transition process.
