Today ICANN and the American government are signing an agreement, a so called ‘affirmation of commitments’ says The Economist. Although this agreement is only 4 pages long, it contains an important annoucement. This agreement gives ICANN the autorithy to manage its own affairs. Moreover this agreement doesn’t need to be renewed every few years, it’s an agreement of unlimited duration.

Until now, the U.S. Department of Commerce was the the only formal body to check on ICANN. This was firmly critizised by the global Internet community as well as by other international governments. Moreover, ICANN itself has long wanted more independency. And this “affirmation of commitments” seems to respond to these needs.

The agreement states that different panels of international representatives from different countries will be composed. These panels will monitor the work of ICANN in 4 areas: competition between generic top-level domains, the administration of domain registrations, network security and transparency and accountability and the public interest. Only in this latter area, the American government remains a permanent supervisor of the government.

The full article of The Economist can be read here.

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