Today, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced it has approved a proposal from the ICANN community for the U.S. government to relinquish its oversight role of the domain name system. This marks the final stages of the IANA transition announced in 2014.
“The announcement from NTIA provided just the impetus the community needed to round out the accountability mechanisms inside ICANN and harden the organization against capture by governments,” said Jonathan Zuck, president of ACT | The App Association, who worked as part of the cross-community working group on accountability to create the proposal.
“Both NTIA and the Berkman Center have endorsed a plan for ICANN accountability, which was born of a truly multistakhoder process to build the stronger, more independent ICANN that has always been intended.
“Participation in this historic effort has been a personal highlight for me in my 18 years at the App Association. While there’s more work to be done, this is an incredibly important milestone. ICANN and the internet will be stronger for this effort.”