SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The U.S. government is relinquishing
its control of the Internet’s address system in a shift that may raise
questions about the future direction of online innovation and
communications.
The decision announced Friday begins a
long-planned transition affecting the stewardship of the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN. That’s a
not-for-profit agency launched in 1998 by the Commerce Department to
govern the system that assigns website addresses and directs Internet
traffic.
The department’s National Telecommunications and
Information Administration, or NTIA, hopes to end its oversight of
ICANN’s Internet Assigned Numbers Authority by the time its contract
expires in September 2015. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
administers the technology that keeps computers connected to the Web and
steers Internet traffic.
Proposals for a new ICANN stewardship will be accepted beginning next week at a conference in Singapore.

Although
it’s too early to tell how future oversight will be handled, the U.S.
government appears determined to hand over the reins to an entity
without political entanglements.
"We will not accept a proposal
that replaces the NTAI’s role with a government-led or intergovernmental
solution," Lawrence Strickling, assistant secretary at the Commerce
Department, told reporters.
That statement may ease concerns that
oversight of ICANN will be turned over to International
Telecommunications Union, which is part of the United Nations.
Although
other countries have had a say in how the Internet works, the U.S.
government retained veto power over ICANN. That role has fueled
recurring debates about whether the U.S. government exerts too much
influence over technology that plays such a pivotal role in society and
the economy.
The concerns about the United States’ role in ICANN
have intensified during the past nine months amid a series of media
leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The disclosures have
revealed that government spy programs have been vacuuming up emails and
other personal data off of Internet services for at least the past six
years as part of the country’s anti-terrorism efforts.
Strickling said the "timing is right" for the Commerce Department to start to phase out of
ICANN.
Some
Internet groups contend the U.S. government should remain in a
supervisory position to prevent leaders in other countries with a
history of suppressing free speech from trying to manipulate ICANN in a
way that censors online communications.
"Without the U.S.
government providing an effective backstop to ICANN’s original operating
principles, there would be no mechanism in place to stop foreign
governments from interfering with ICANN’s operations," Daniel Castro,
senior analyst for the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation,
wrote in a Friday blog post.
The U.S. government appears to be
trying to dictate the agenda for the upcoming changing of the guard at
ICANN, said Greg Shatan, a New York attorney specializing in Internet
issues for the law firm of Reed Smith. In the process, the U.S. could
make it more difficult for other countries seizing upon the Snowden
revelations to gain greater control over the agency.
U.S. leaders
"didn’t like the way the wind is blowing, so they are trying to move the
fan to blow the wind in a different direction," Shatan said.
Fadi
Chehade, ICANN’s president, took a diplomatic stance to the looming
shift in power. "All stakeholders deserve a voice in the management and
governance of this global resource as equal partners," he said.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.