Why Icann and Internet governance are no longer America’s domain

[Commentary] In the next few weeks, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is expected to announce a leadership change. Fadi Chehadé, the organisation’s Lebanon-born American chief executive, is due to step down — and he hopes that a non-American will take his place. Behind the scenes a battle is under way over who should control these protocols and domain names. This is not only relevant to technical folks: the story of Icann might give Washington a well-timed opportunity to defuse some of the anger that European and Asian governments feel about US internet policy. The issue revolves around the question of who should oversee, monitor and assign domain names, such as .edu or .com, and IP addresses. Icann has handled this work since it was established by the US government in 1998. It operates as a non-profit group with a licence from the US Department of Commerce, and it does its work by organising a vast community of volunteers to perform functions such as ensuring that IP addresses do not clash.