The U.S. Commerce Department has always had its thumb on ICANN, the organization that controls Internet governance, regulates domain registrars, and has final say over top-level domains like .com, .org, and the didn’t-get-approved .xxx. ICANN’s supervision by the Commerce Department theoretically ends in September, and Viviane Reding, the European commissioner for Internet and information technology issues, is calling for the Commerce department’s occasionally-heavy hand to be replaced a new multinational approach to Internet governance. Reding urges U.S. president Barack Obama to allow ICANN to become fully privatized, and therefore fully accountable to all nations, not just the United States.
