The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) today took a critical step toward achieving real accountability and institutional confidence by agreeing to a new “affirmation of commitments” with the U.S. Department of Commerce. The decision is very much in line with the recommendations I made in a piece for the Center for American Progress’s science journal, Science Progress, earlier this week.
The expiration this month of ICANN’s previous “Joint Project Agreement” with the U.S. Government posed a serious threat to ICANN’s quest for improved accountability and institutional confidence, but the new agreement preserves key elements of accountability and redress, while advancing a new era of international engagement.
With less than half of the governments of the world involved in ICANN, its future always seemed insecure. The end of the JPA combined with this new framework for international participation and oversight, should provide an opportunity for more European governments and stakeholders to embrace the independent ICANN model and finally get involved with the process.
In recent years, ICANN’s greatest challenge has been establishing measurable global accountability. Today’s agreement provides the international framework that will permit ICANN to achieve that goal.
The new agreement also preserves one of ICANN’s most important defining principles: private-sector leadership.
With the expiration of the JPA, the greatest threat was that governments would seek to replace the bottom-up, community-led ICANN model, with a government-led, top-down governance scheme. The new agreement strikes a fine balance, preserving the private-sector leadership, while providing an appropriate venue for governments to provide oversight and guidance.