End to U.S. oversight a step towards maturity for the Internet

InternetNZ (Internet New Zealand Inc) is pleased by last Friday’s historic announcement that the U.S Government will cede control of domain names and Internet addresses. The United States Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has said it intends to finish a process it started in the 1990s.

“The United States deserves gratitude for its role as steward of these critical Internet resources during the past sixteen years and for recognising that the time is right for control to move away from governments and into the hands of the global Internet community,” says Chief Executive Jordan Carter.

"That control is to be entrusted to multi-stakeholder organisations: organisations where governments, the private sector, civil society and the technical community engage on equal terms and decisions are made by consensus."

"It is fitting that the NTIA should task ICANN with coordinating the view of the global Internet community on the new settlement for these functions; the NTIA was instrumental in establishing the global multi-stakeholder organisation. This signals a growing recognition of the maturity of the Internet community that the Internet community is the right community to manage Internet resources.

“In developing the way forward, the NTIA decision hands two key roles over to the Internet community – the final say on policymaking that affects the Internet’s root functions, and the technical implementation of those policy decisions. The changes that need to be agreed in the next eighteen months or so must provide properly for both roles. In our view, this means they should be structurally separate.

“The new settlement has to safeguard the safety, stability, resilience and security of the Internet, given its global importance. It has to provide that same security to .nz. In particular the checks and balances created by the current role of the U.S. government need to be replicated in the new settlement,” Carter says.

“InternetNZ staff will be active over the coming months to help shape this settlement and so guaranteeing the ongoing security and stability of the Internet, a very important part of modern economic and social life,” concludes Jordan Carter.

ENDS

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