A years-long push by the administration of US President Barack Obama to cede oversight of the nonprofit in charge of the Internet’s technical management to the global community moved ahead on Thursday, as officials said the plan was on track to be implemented before the US presidential election in November.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) submitted a final transition plan to the US Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration following a week of negotiations in Marrakesh, Morocco, among international Internet stakeholders.
ICANN manages the database for top-level domain names such as .com and .net and their corresponding numeric addresses that allow computers to connect.
It is governed by a collection of academics, technical experts, private industry and government representatives, public interest advocates and individual users from around the world, in what it calls a “multi-stakeholder process.”
The proposal still needs final approval from the Obama administration, but ICANN officials expressed optimism that the process would complete on schedule before the current contract with the department expires in September.
“The multi-stakeholder community has delivered the proposal,” ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade told a news conference in Morocco. “What happens after this point will hopefully strengthen and vindicate this community.”
The US currently possesses primary control of the Internet’s management, a responsibility held largely because the Internet was invented in the US.
In a statement, the Internet Governance Coalition, a group of large companies including Walt Disney Co, Facebook Inc, Google, Verizon Communications Inc and Time Warner Cable Inc applauded the proposal as “an important milestone for the multistakeholder model of Internet governance and for the Internet as a whole.”
Some Republicans in the US Congress have expressed skepticism about the transition, saying that allowing countries with authoritarian regimes like Russia or China to have some say on Internet governance could threaten free speech online.
Supporters of the final package say it carries protections requiring that governments reach a consensus before making significant changes to ICANN, and that its multi-stakeholder model will prevent abuses.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last