Assigning and managing domain names and IP addresses has been done by the US-based company ICANN since the Internet became established, but Washington announced in March 2014 that it wanted ‘the global multi-stakeholder community’ to take over the task. The transfer is not straightforward; China and Russia, among others, believe the United Nations should be involved in managing the worldwide web but the US fears undue influence from governments or intergovernmental organisations and the move could be delayed by several years.
NOBODY owns the entire Internet, but forthcoming changes will have a worldwide impact on its...
