The Internet's power is expanding at an incomprehensible rate and the question of who has the responsibility of guarding it – and what this responsibility entails – is sending international governing bodies into a tizzy.
Last year, the U.S. Commerce Department, which had assumed this responsibility since the World Wide Web was born, decided to begin relinquishing its control in exchange for a more democratic system of decision-making. It announced it was passing the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and a consortium of interested parties, creating a multishareholder system where power is almost entirely decentralized from any single body.
As a result, the Department of Commerce asked ICANN to draft a plan that will help the U.S.-based organization operate independently as long as it fosters a healthy relationship with the government and promotes a free Internet. It would also continue to operate from California.
On July 30, ICANN published a 199-page public report (PDF) that detailed what this shift would look like, emphasizing barriers that would keep any single nation from dominating Internet management decisions. A Customer Standing Committee (CSC) comprised of various industry stakeholders and agencies such as NASA and the Internet Systems Consortium would consider these decisions.
The public proposal is open to comments and critique until Sept. 8.
Although the shift would be an act of camaraderie with other governing bodies unhappy with the United States' current monopoly over the web, the idea of handing over control is also a worrying thought for many, including Bill Clinton, who has been critical of the Obama administration's decision to give up U.S oversight from the very beginning.
"A lot of these so-called multistakeholders are really governments that want to gag people and restrict access to the Internet," Clinton said last year at a panel (he makes his opinion clear around the 1:03:40 mark) sponsored by the Clinton Global Initiative, stating he was apprehensive to change a system he saw working well.
There was also resistance from Russia and China, who wanted to place ICANN in the hands of the United Nations, but both ICANN"s chief, Fadi Chehadé, and the U.S. disagreed with this solution vehemently, defending the proposed multistakeholder model.
"I agree that people will talk about capturing [control of ICANN], but they haven't," Chehadé told Reuters. "For 15 years ICANN has operated without one government capturing the decision making."
For now, the goal is not to have the shift take place quickly, but rather have the transfer take place in a cautious and responsible manner. Although still unclear about its fate, President Obama hopes to present a plan to Congress with the possibility of a transition taking place as soon as the summer of 2016.
