Major loss of control over the internet: U.S. government to relinquish oversight of Internet addresses

The U.S. Government puts this out in the Friday news dump:

U.S. government to relinquish oversight of Internet addresses

The U.S. government is going to surrender its oversight role over the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) sometime in late 2015, according to an announcement on Friday evening.  ICANN is the organization that sets up Web addresses, converting those easily-remembered “dot-com” website names into the numbers used internally by Internet browsers.  Everyone agrees the end of American stewardship is historic, but opinions on the wisdom of the move, and its ramifications for Internet users, vary widely.

Today’s announcement seems to have taken the tech industry by surprise, although a formal separation between the U.S. government and ICANN has been discussed ever since the corporation’s inception in 1998.  Those who support a “global model” for ICANN say it’s a sign of the Internet’s maturity that American oversight will no longer be required.  Naturally, some other governments resent the special role played by the United States as godfather of the Internet.

Unfortunately, there are suspicions today’s announcement was motivated by America’s role as Big Brother of the Internet.  The broad-based surveillance exposed during the Edward Snowden saga generated quite a bit of anger among the international targets of digital spying.  None of the NSA’s activities had any direct relationship to the domain assignment duties of ICANN, and the Administration formally denies that the transition to global control is a consequence of the surveillance scandal, but some observers persist in thinking it’s meant as a gesture of conciliation to soothe hurt feelings and build confidence in an Internet less subject to U.S. intelligence activity.

To Read the rest of the article: Breitbart: http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2014/03/14/U-S-government-to-relinquish-oversight-of-Internet-addresses

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