ICANN’S ACCOUNTABILITY
announcement that became a key subject during ICANN’s 49th meeting in Singapore from March 23 to 27. Te NTIA said it wants to hand over key internet domain name functions to the global multi-stakeholder community.
I
As the first step, the NTIA asked ICANN to consult stakeholders in order to develop a proposal for transitioning the NTIA’s role in coordinating the internet’s domain name system (DNS). Te NTIA’s responsibility includes administering changes to the authoritative root zone file—the database containing the lists of names and addresses of all top-level domains (TLDs)—as well as serving as the historic steward of the DNS.
A key organisation for the internet, the NTIA is the US agency principally responsible for advising the US president on telecommunications and information policy issues. Its programmes and policy-making focus largely on expanding broadband internet access and use in the US, and ensuring that the internet remains an engine for innovation and economic growth.
Te NTIA currently holds a contract from ICANN under which it carries out the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions. Te IANA contract provides ICANN with the ability to assign new country-code TLDs and generic TLDs. As part of its announcement in March, the NTIA expects ICANN to work collaboratively with directly affected parties, including the Internet Engineering Task Force, the Internet Architecture Board,
the Internet
Society, the Regional Internet Registries, TLD operators, Verisign (which the NTIA holds a contract with), and other interested global stakeholders.
Te NTIA requires broad community support and for a proposal to address the following four principles, to:
• Support and enhance the multi-stakeholder model;
• Maintain the security, stability, and resiliency of the internet DNS;
• Fulfil the needs and expectations of global customers and partners of the IANA services; and
• Maintain the openness of the internet.
www.trademarksandbrandsonline.com
n March this year, the US National Telecommunications Administration
and Information (NTIA) made a major
Te NTIA said it will not accept a proposal that transitions its role to a government or an inter- governmental organisation.
Transitioning the NTIA’s role marks the final phase of the privatisation of the DNS, as outlined by the US government in 1997. From the inception of ICANN, the US government and internet stakeholders envisioned that the US’s relationship with the IANA functions would be temporary. Te Commerce Department’s 1998 statement of policy made clear that the US government “is committed to a transition that will allow the private sector to take leadership for DNS management”. IANA’s current contract expires on September 30, 2015.
Tis newest development was big news and was welcomed at
the latest ICANN meeting. EU
commission vice president Neelie Kroes—who, in the communication on internet policy and governance of February 12, 2014 called for the globalisation of the IANA functions—defined this as a “historic step in making internet governance truly global” and “major progress towards the development of a multi-stakeholder model”.
Te outcome will be that the US no longer has a final say in changes to globally-used data on TLDs.
Can ICANN cope with this task?
Te NTIA also said that “ICANN as an organisation has matured and taken steps in recent years to improve its accountability and transparency and its technical competence”. But is that really the case?
Tere seems to be unanimity in the call for an accountable transition. As US senator John Tune stated publicly in March: “Tere are people who want to see the internet fall into the grip of the UN or who would allow ICANN to become an unaccountable organisation with the power to control the internet, and we cannot allow them to determine how this process plays out.”
Te question, however, is whether, given recent developments, the internet community has now been leſt with an accountability vacuum. Te US government played an important role—albeit a very limited one in recent years—in ensuring IANA was doing the work it was tasked with. With the removal of the US government, mechanisms or structures will need to be put in place in
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