US government gives ICANN more freedom

As is known, for many years the US government controls the root DNS servers and the entire domain name registration system on the Internet through the US Department of Commerce, the nonprofit Internet Naming and Numbering Corporation ( ICANN ) and VeriSign . No major changes to the domain name system can be made without the approval of the US Department of Commerce.

Representatives of the world community have long appealed to the American authorities with a proposal to voluntarily give up control over their invention - the Global Network. Americans do not hesitate to recognize the need for such a step, but they still constantly postpone the privatization of ICANN . Apparently, they believe that the world community is still “not ripe” for democratic control over the Internet, which is now exercising the United States.

The new treaty, signed by the US government and ICANN, was another disappointment for all who hoped for reform. It must be said that the privatization of ICANN is not postponed for the first time. This organization was founded in 1998 and began to operate under the supervision of the US Department of Commerce. It was planned that in 2000 this supervision would be abolished and ICANN would receive complete freedom, but at the last moment the officials decided otherwise. The same story repeated in 2002, 2004 and 2006. Moreover, the current contract was concluded not for two, but for three years at once according to the formula one and a half + one and a half (with the possibility of changing the terms of the contract after 18 months).

However, there is good news. The ICANN Executive Director claims that the organization has gained much more independence and the new contract is "an important step towards ICANN autonomy."
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From now on, the work of the US Department of Commerce will not draw up a work plan for ICANN and will cancel the procedure for mandatory activity reports, which are compiled every six months. Now ICANN's policy will become more independent.