End of US oversight over the core function of the internet’

The Slovak Presidency welcomes the long-awaited transition of the stewardship of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) function from the US Administration to the international internet community, which took place on 1 October 2016.

"This step represents a milestone in the evolution of the planet’s biggest global network with huge economic, social, educative and democratic influences, and it will bring a much bigger transparency to its administration and especially political independence of its consensus-based management," said Peter Pellegrini, Slovak Deputy Prime Minister for Investments and Information Society.

The IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) function includes a series of technical specifications that enable people to send emails and access websites in an easy way. The transition of the IANA function(s), being a set of critical tasks, took place with the expiry of the contract between the US Department of Commerce, which provided formal oversight over the internet, and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which manages the internet’s root zone. From now on, therefore, ICANN will act as a self-regulatory organisation managed by a multi-stakeholder community composed of diverse engineers, academics, corporate representatives, governments and non-governmental organisations.