EU calls on Obama to give up Internet oversight

The European Union has called on U.S. President Barack Obama to turn over U.S. oversight of the Internet to a larger body of nations. Currently, governance and security of the Internet rests solely with the non-profit organisation Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers or ICANN.

The EU Commissioner, Viviane Reding’s proposal would release control of ICANN from the U.S. Commerce Department to a 12-nation committee.

“I trust that President Obama will have the courage, the wisdom and the respect for the global nature of the Internet to pave the way in September for a new, more accountable, more transparent, more democratic and more multilateral form of Internet governance,” Reding said.

“It is not defendable that the government department of only one country has oversight of an internet function which is used by hundreds of millions of people in countries all over the world,” she said in a video message on her Web site.

The Bush administration resisted efforts to hand ICANN oversight to a United Nations agency.

Source: MSNBC
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