Last week, the administration said the United States will begin negotiations to cede control of one of the Net’s most powerful institutions, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN. Currently overseen by the Department of Commerce, ICANN will be taken over by an international agency to be assembled later. The process is set to begin next week in Singapore, where the current ICANN members are scheduled to meet.
Published on 24 Mar 2014
The Internet began as a Pentagon-funded project called ARPANET, a network linking computers in some American universities and government agencies. Eventually, it was opened up to become the world wide web, connecting everything from computers and mobile phones to tablets and video game consoles.No one government fully controls the Internet, but the US does regulate some protocols. Faced with pressures, it is now considering relinquishing some of it to global stakeholders.Al Jazeera's Gerald Tan reports.
