The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) currently operates under an agreement with the US Department of Commerce, which expires on 30 September.<\/p>\n
ICANN, a non-profit organisation based in Marina del Rey in Southern California, oversees the assignment of domain names — such as .org or .edu — and Internet protocol addresses that help computers communicate.<\/p>\n
The European Commission said that when ICANN’s agreement with Washington expired, it should become more “universally accountable.”<\/p>\n
“In the view of the European Commission, future Internet governance arrangements should reflect the key role that the global network has come to play for all countries,” it said in a statement.<\/p>\n
According to the commission, there are currently 1.5 billion Internet users worldwide, 300 million of which are in the European Union’s 27 member states.<\/p>\n
“Will it become a fully independent organisation, accountable to the global Internet community? Europeans would expect so, and this is what we will push for,” said EU Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding.<\/p>\n
“I call on the United States to work together with the European Union to achieve this.”<\/p>\n
The current agreement dates back to the group’s inception in 1998 and gives the US government oversight over the body.<\/p>\n