ICANN reaches new governance agreement

The non-profit group that helps hold the internet together by overseeing the domain name system has faced the diplomatic problem of loosening, without severing, its ties to the United States.

In a previous dispatch GlobalPost explained how the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) was renegotiating one of two agreements that created its unique role and structure a little over a decade ago as the U.S. was privatizing and internationalizing the network that it had begun as a military research project.

When ICANN announced a new governance agreement today it included a statement of support from Viviane Reding, the European Union commissioner for information society and media, who had been among those calling for a greater international involvement in the group's activities.

But the advocacy group Reporters Without Borders fears the new agreement could give other governments a bigger role in ICANN, something which it opposes.

So the controversy may continue.

http://www.globalpost.com/notebook/technology/090930/icann-reaches-new-governance-agreement