A transition away from U.S. government oversight to a group of genuinely concerned organizations and individuals without vested profiteering or political interests can help reflect diversity of today’s vulnerable Internet communities and check the corporate daddies / brands / celebrities nexus diluting its freedom / liberty. Calling “local circles of tiny ponds as the Internet universe” is criminal, why vested big brands be allowed to promote only their own breeds! True colors of the free Internet can be well measured in conflict zones, not in the Mediterranean network.

Currently ICANN is a global multi-stakeholder organization created in 1998 through U.S. government contracts that ensures continuous connectivity between your and everyone else’s computer, smart phone, server, tablet, website, mobile apps, IoT devices, AI Big Data hoarding etc. ICANN manages the Internet’s IP addresses, domain names, and root servers – the Internet’s phone book. You may have noticed the acronym in passing if you considered one of the new domain name extensions offered to nonprofits, like .charity or .foundation. ICANN coordinates the Internet’s DNS, IP addresses and autonomous system numbers, which involves a continued management of these evolving systems and the protocols that underlay them. Its Board of Directors has global representation.

Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions contract between the NTIA and ICANN. The Internet was built to accommodate about 4.3 billion addresses. ICANN and its global partners are building Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) to allow much more addresses. Other countries have long wanted to have a say in how all of that is managed and maintained. Some have called for UN or some other inter-governmental organization to take the reins from ICANN. PTI is the new compromise, it sounds.

Some lawmakers and advocacy groups are resisting this so-called Internet giveaway. They argue that the transition could lead to Internet censorship by authoritarian governments such as China, Turkey, Russia, and Iran – as if the jingoists are not doing it now already. The transition may violate US Constitution if it transfers government property to a private entity without congressional approval. Other concerns include the weakening of intellectual property protections. (Ref: CIO & http://indiahosting.org)