IANA Transition and ICANN Accountability proposals: thumbs-up from US Commerce Department

Today, NTIA announced its report on the community proposal for IANA transition and ICANN Accountability.  NTIA concluded that the proposal meet the conditions for transition, and would effectively protect ICANN from capture by governments.

NetChoice released this statement today, consistent with our testimony in Senate Commerce last month:

It’s no surprise that this report confirms that the community proposals meet NTIA’s conditions, since we were tuned-in to those requirements from the start. We’re also pleased that Berkman Center concluded that our proposals would effectively prevent capture of ICANN by governments.

As we’ve said in several Congressional hearings on this transition, we appreciate how Congress backed the community by demanding that ICANN implement the proposals developed by the community.

With this report, NTIA clears the way for expiration of the IANA contract, leaving ICANN under the control of the international private sector stakeholders it was designed to serve.

Some members of Congress have lingering doubts about this transition, but the protections are in place — to include ICANN’s headquarters remaining in the U.S. — to ensure that free expression and free enterprise will prevail in the domain name system at the core of the Internet.