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David Coursey | Wednesday, September 30, 2009 12:27 PM PDT

U.S. Loosens Grip On ICANN, Domain Chaos To Follow?

Tech InciterThe tech world according to David Coursey

U.S. Loosens Grip On ICANN, Domain Chaos To Follow?

The U.S. has relaxed its grip on the Internet, thanks to a new agreement with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Widely hailed as an internationalization of Internet governance, the move could also make it more likely consumers will see a huge increase in Global Top-Level Domains (gTLDs).

Until now, ICANN has largely been a creature of the U.S. Department of Commerce and has sometimes been criticized as a result. The new agreement between ICANN and the U.S. creates a new international management scheme, under which the U.S. has only a single seat at the negotiating table.

ICANN controls the international domain name and IP address structure that gives the Internet its form. It is also the group that decides which gTLDs, such as .com, .net, and .org can be used.