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USA Will Stop Controling The Internet Starting October

USA Will Stop Controling The Internet Starting October

The US will finally hand over the internet after decades of control and domination.

The United States of America has announced that it is ready to hand over the internet naming system (DNS) to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

DNS is in fact one of the internet’s most important features. If it wasn’t for the Domain Naming System, websites would have to be accessed through their IP addresses instead of easy domain names. For example, instead of reading this article on www.thelifepile.com you’d have to read it on an address similar to 162.144.192.96, the domain’s IP address.

USA’s dominance of the internet wasn’t planned, but rather circumstantial, and is now going to be handed over to the non-profit organization, the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN.

The transition has been in the happening for almost 20 years a now, and when complete, several interest groups would have a say. Some of the stakeholders are corporations, governments, as well as powerful businessmen. Countries like China and Russia have been asking for the United Nations to govern the internet for a long while, but America, the United Kingdom and Canada, among others refused the proposition in 2012.

Starting October 1, 2015, the ICANN will be handed full control of the internet. And even though the center is located in Los Angeles, California, the US government will have lost its say and power in related matters.

The International Corporation for Assigned Names and Number was founded in 1998 by Jon Postel, who before its establishment handled the task of assigning domain names himself.

Postel who passed away not long after the ICANN was created, was in charge of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority which was monitored and controlled by the US National Telecommunications and Information Administration, part of the country’s Department of Commerce. After the hand-over, neither the IANA nor the NTIA will have a say in ICANN’s matters.

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