A few days before the 25th anniversary of the birth of the Web, a few days after the request of Tim Berners-Lee for a Charter of Rights of the Web, a few hours after the phone call from Mark Zuckerberg to President Barack Obama, and at the backdrop of the NSA saga, the United States announced a historic turning point in the context control of the development of the Internet.

For some years now, the United States has maintained control over ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) but is now preparing to initiate the procedure for a handover to an international body.

The formalization has been started by means of a press release from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), an internal body of the Department of Commerce, which ask ICANN to muster all the actors involved in this step to establish rules and procedures with which to shape the future organization that will replace the functions now in the hands of the U.S.

ICAAN is a kind of cooperative that includes a wide array of companies and people, as well as more than 100 governments. One of the key functions overseen by the U.S. is the assignment of domain names. The other function of ICANN includes maintaining the database containing the lists of names and addresses of all top-level domains–as well as serving as the historic steward of the DNS.

“The timing is right to start the transition process,” said Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information Lawrence E. Strickling. “We look forward to ICANN convening stakeholders across the global Internet community to craft an appropriate transition plan.”

The news was first involved the ICANN itself. Its director, Steve Crocker, welcomed this historic decision. In the video on its YouTube channel, Crocker calls this step “a great deal”.

“This step is the end of a process that we started at the end of the nineties, when we realized the need to privatize the functions of allocation. Today’s announcement is the beginning of the end of the process in which take into port transfer. (…) We can see the end of the direct involvement of the U.S. government, he said.

ICANN will work collaboratively with the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), the Internet Society (ISOC), the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs), top level domain name operators, VeriSign, and other interested global stakeholders to maintain the security, stability, and resiliency of the Internet DNS; meet the needs and expectation of the global customers and partners of the IANA services; support and enhance the multistakeholder model and maintain the openness of the Internet.

“We are inviting governments, the private sector, civil society and other Internet organizations from the whole world to join us in developing this transition process,” said Fadi Chehadé, the president and chief executive of Icann. “All stakeholders deserve a voice in the management and governance of this global resource as equal partners.”

Sense of freedom

The Department of Commerce has announced its intention to not update the contract with ICANN, maturing in September 2015. This was the only obstacle to the transfer of all protocol of allocation and management, which saw a united Europe very careful and concerned that the multi-stakeholder project was again postponed.

Although ICANN has nothing to do with the NSA, the National Agency of U.S. intelligence, many observers read this decision as a response to criticism received from the government – both by governments of other countries, by large Internet companies – following the revelations of Edward Snowden, which led to the publication of the documents on the NSA surveillance programs.

Some Internet groups contend the U.S. government should remain in a supervisory position to prevent leaders in other countries with a history of suppressing free speech from trying to manipulate ICANN in a way that censors online communications. In December 2013, eight of the largest Internet companies in the world had asked the U.S. government to reform the laws that currently allow the superpower to control, with little legal limits of online communications.

Voluntarily giving up the IANA functions, the U.S. will no longer be directly involved in the validation of new Internet domain names, but will participate in the construction of a more global decision-making platform as explained in the FAQ document published by ICANN.

At the moment it is not easy to imagine the practical consequences of this decision, considering that many aspects have not yet been defined. A first phase of preliminary meetings between the members of the international community is scheduled to Singapore next March 21 to 27, to discuss the mechanism of the transition. Some commentators have questioned whether ICANN has the authority and have sufficient experience to independently manage this new phase, with no government oversight, while others have criticized the choice of all to continue to leave essentially in the hands of ‘ICANN’s role as director of domain names. Everything depends on the maturity of ICANN and its ability to independently ensure that these principles are preserved in time.

This governance has positive aspects and problems. Among the former, the opportunity to engage in a systematic way all those who are part of the network and more economic resources that will be necessary to keep the huge costs of its implementation. The most critical aspect is of course the possible introduction of political logic of strong contrast to the freedom of the Net, imported from countries like Russia, India and China.