US Is Losing Control Of The Internet

By Duncan Geere

All of the major internet organisations have pledged, at a summit in Uruguay, to free themselves of the influence of the US government.

The directors of ICANN, the Internet Engineering Task Force, the Internet Architecture Board, the World Wide Web Consortium, the Internet Society and all five of the regional Internet address registries have vowed to break their associations with the US government.

In a statement, the group called for "accelerating the globalization of ICANN and IANA functions, towards an environment in which all stakeholders, including all governments, participate on an equal footing".

That's a distinct change from the current situation, where the US department of commerce has oversight of ICANN.

In another part of the statement, the group "expressed strong concern over the undermining of the trust and confidence of Internet users globally due to recent revelations of pervasive monitoring and surveillance".

Meanwhile, it was announced that the next Internet Governance Summit would be held in Brazil, whose president has been extremely critical of the US over web surveillance.

In a statement announcing the location of the summit, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff said: "The United States and its allies must urgently end their spying activities once and for all."