Transition to ICANN goes ahead despite fear-mongering crusade led by Ted Cruz and other Republican lawmakers

By Lauren McCauley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 10-1-2016

Transition to international multi-stakeholder nonprofit said to be “the best way to assure that the internet of tomorrow remains as free, open and accessible as the internet of today.” (Photo: Christiann Colen/cc/flickr)

Though Republican lawmakers have painted this moment in Internet history as ‘doomsday,’ and rallied a last ditch-effort to block it, at midnight on Saturday the U.S. government cede control of the web’s core naming directory to a multi-stakeholder nonprofit.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a California-based group of international stakeholders will now control the functions of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which includes the database that translates website names into Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. Continue reading →