US Delays Plan to Give Up Control of Internet

The Commerce Department is delaying for at least a year a controversial plan to internationalize Internet control by giving up oversight of its names and addresses system.

The department is instead renewing its contract for a year with the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which contracts with companies that sell domain names and addresses, Assistant Commerce Secretary Lawrence Strickling writes in a blog post Monday.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the posting.

Commerce has overseen ICANN since it was created in 1998, but last year, the Obama administration said it planned to transfer its oversight to a group of international stakeholders by September 2015.

The Journal notes critics fear the shift could clear the way for influence from foreign governments not committed to Western principles of free expression, and which might want different rules for administering the Internet in different parts of the world.

"It has become increasingly apparent over the last few months that the community needs time to complete its work, have the plan reviewed by the U.S. government and then implement it if it is approved," Strickling writes.

Strickling said the government will extend its contract with ICANN to Sept. 30, 2016, with options to extend it another three years.

The extension, he writes, gives the department time to work out additional details on how a "multistakeholder" governance might work.

GOP House lawmakers hailed the decision.

"This is an important step," House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R., Mich., and Reps. Greg Walden, R., Ore.,  and John Shimkus, R., Ill., in a statement.

"The administration is recognizing, as it should, that it is more important to get this issue right than it is to simply get it done."

“We appreciate the administration’s efforts and look forward to working with them, and the global Internet community, to get this done right," the statement said.

The House voted in June to give lawmakers the power to review other governance models for ICANN before any transition occurs, PC World has reported.

ICANN Chief Executive Fadi Chehadé, who championed greater independence for the group, announced in May he'll leave next March to work in the private sector, the Journal reports.

In 2013, he'd praised Brazil’s call for the United States to relinquish oversight of the agency in the wake of disclosures the National Security Agency monitored Brazil’s leaders and businesses online.

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