Opinion
A Better Way to Govern the Internet
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ICANN, as a nonprofit corporation with a self-perpetuating board of directors, has lacked effective accountability.
By Lawrence White and Thomas Lenard
A previously obscure nonprofit corporation that essentially governs the Internet — the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) — has featured prominently in recent news stories due to the U.S. Department of Commerce's plan to relinquish its key oversight role. Details of this transition will be high on the agenda as ICANN stakeholders meet in Los Angeles this week. Many observers fear that ICANN could soon be subject to the heavy-handed influences of governments that do not share the values that have led to the innovation, flexibility and openness that has hitherto characterized the Internet.
The United States' proposed withdrawal is the opportunity for a rethinking of ICANN's governance structure. Moreover, we believe that there is a reasonable solution to ICANN's longstanding accountability problem that would mitigate concerns of government influence.
The accountability of ICANN is a serious problem that has been present since ICANN was created in 1998 as a nonprofit organization incorporated in California. The Department of Commerce at that time retained some residual control through a contract with the ICANN-operated Internet Assigned Names Authority (IANA) to administer the Domain Name System (DNS) — the system of Internet addresses that allows us to access Web pages and to communicate through email.
Read full article as published in The Hill
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Lawrence White is the Robert Kavesh Professorship in Economics and the Deputy Chair, Economics.
The United States' proposed withdrawal is the opportunity for a rethinking of ICANN's governance structure. Moreover, we believe that there is a reasonable solution to ICANN's longstanding accountability problem that would mitigate concerns of government influence.
The accountability of ICANN is a serious problem that has been present since ICANN was created in 1998 as a nonprofit organization incorporated in California. The Department of Commerce at that time retained some residual control through a contract with the ICANN-operated Internet Assigned Names Authority (IANA) to administer the Domain Name System (DNS) — the system of Internet addresses that allows us to access Web pages and to communicate through email.
Read full article as published in The Hill
___
Lawrence White is the Robert Kavesh Professorship in Economics and the Deputy Chair, Economics.