In a move eyed by many as an effort to restore public confidence in the Internet, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has created a panel made of IT professionals, people from government, the private sector and internal organization to tackle Internet governance issues.
ICANN currently regulates the Internet’s naming and numbering systems under contract with the United States government.
In a statement on Sunday, ICANN said the Panel on the Future of Global Internet Corporation will have its first meeting in December in London and release early next year for public comment its report on Internet governance as well as a proposed framework for global Internet cooperation.
Global concerns about Internet governance cannot be addressed by ICANN alone, the organization in a resolution I made last August.
The creation of the panel also follows growing concerns around the world about the U.S. government’s online spying activities which include alleged real-time access to content of servers of companies by connecting to data centres of Google and Yahoo.
Internet companies have denied involvement in the activities of the U.S. National Security Agency.
In October, ICANN and other organizations like the Internet Engineering Task Force and the World Wide Web Consortium, met in Montevideo, Uruguay. The released the Montevideo Statement on the Future of Internet Cooperation which stressed that NSA surveillance activities were undermining global trust and confidence of Internet users.
The statement also sought the globalization of ICANN and Internet Assigned Number Authority functions to enable stakeholders including government to participate on equal footing.