The U.S. government is looking to give up control of Internet administration, officials announced on Friday.
CNET reports that the Department of Congress has continued to run things like the Internet's Domain Name System and now wants to hand over control to ICANN.
ICANN is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which the Commerce Department wants to put together a "multistakeholder" way to govern the internet.
According to The Washington Post, assistant secretary of commerce for communications and information Lawrence E. Strickling said in a statement, "We look forward to ICANN convening stakeholders across the global Internet community to craft an appropriate transition plan."
The Post notes that it isn't entirely sure what will be a result of the move, but that it likely comes now as countries are worried over the U.S.' control of the Internet as reports of NSA spying continue to come out.
Some are applauding the announcement, while others aren't so sure ICANN is the best choice. Digital Citizens Alliance security fellow Garth Bruen said, "This is a purely political bone that the U.S. is throwing."
Bruen added, "ICANN has made a lot of mistakes, and ICANN has not really been a good steward."
CNET notes that ICANN is already looking to partner up with other countries as control is ceded by the U.S. and there is a meeting set up in April with Brazil.
image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
