Nearly three dozen Senators are asking for deeper insight on the federal government's move to relinquish authority over the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority and the potential for the organization, and relatedly the Internet, to fall under the control of repressive governments.
In a letter Wednesday to the Assistant Secretary of Commerce Larry Strickling, who heads up the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the lawmakers requests that NTIA retain a "bottom-up, multi-stakeholder approach"
"The global community of Internet stakeholders should act deliberately and transparently as it formulates a possible proposal to transition the IANA functions to a nongovernmental entity. The multi-stakeholder model of Internet governance and the IANA functions are far too important for this process to be rushed or to be done behind closed doors," states the letter signed by 35 senators.
As TechTimes reported in mid March NTIA intends to hand over Internet policy making and governance to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), an organization that now manages assigning .com, .org, .gov and other Web domains.
The move comes as U.S. agencies and lawmakers are investigating federal agency surveillance and data collection activities and the use of the Internet in U.S. security security policy and strategy.
In 2012, Congress unanimously passed a resolution expressing support for the bottom-up, multi-stakeholder model that currently governs the Internet.
In the letter the lawmakers express concern that the oversight change not result in IANA functions falling under control of repressive governments or unaccountable bureaucrats. It also lists out over a dozen questions relating to why the transition is necessary and the specific actions that will be taken to protect IANA. The letter cites a 2000 report by the U.S. General Accounting Office that states "it is unclear if the Department [of Commerce] has the requisite authority" to transfer control of the IANA functions to a private entity.
"How can the Administration guarantee the multi-stakeholder organization that succeeds NTIA will not subsequently transfer the IANA functions to a government or intergovernmental organization in the future, or that such successor organization will not eventually fall under the undue influence of other governments?" states the letter which also requests "expeditious response" to the letter.
