- ICANN, established in 1998, is a non-profit organisation tasked with managing domain names and allocating IP addresses globally.
- It has operated independently from the U.S. government since 2009 and focuses on maintaining the stability and interoperability of the Internet.
- Despite requests, ICANN declined to intervene in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, emphasising its mission to ensure the normal operation of the Internet.
ICANN (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is a non-profit international organisation established in October 1998, comprising experts from various fields of business, technology, and academia in the global internet community. It is responsible for coordinating the operation of the unique identifier systems of the internet and ensuring their security and stability worldwide. This includes the allocation of internet protocol (IP) address space, assignment of protocol identifiers, management of generic top-level domains (gTLDs) and country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) systems, as well as management of the root server system. These services were initially provided under contracts with the U.S. government by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and other organisations. ICANN exercises the functions of IANA.
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The history could be traced back to the early 1990s
The Internet originated in the United States and was initially a network serving military and research purposes. In the early 1990s, the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded the internet and entered into an agreement with Network Solutions (NSI) on behalf of the U.S. government, delegating the responsibility for registering, coordinating, and maintaining the internet’s top-level domain system to NSI. Address resource allocation for the Internet was handled by IANA, which allocated addresses to ARIN (North America), RIPE (Europe), and APNIC (Asia-Pacific), which then distributed addresses to ISPs in their respective regions. However, with the global development of the Internet, an increasing number of countries expressed dissatisfaction with the United States’ sole management of the Internet, calling for reform in its management.
In early 1998, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued a “green paper” on the management of internet domain names and addresses, asserting the U.S. government’s direct managerial authority over the Internet, which was met with opposition from almost all countries and organisations except the United States. After soliciting extensive feedback, the U.S. government released a revised version of the “green paper,” known as the “white paper,” on June 5, 1998. The white paper proposed the establishment of a private, non-profit corporation, ICANN, to participate in the management of internet domain names and address resources under principles of stability, competitiveness, private sector coordination, and full representation. ICANN was officially established in October 1998 and achieved independence from the U.S. government on October 2, 2009.
On October 1, 2016 (Eastern Time), the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), a sub-agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, fully transferred the management of internet domain names to ICANN, and the contractual management agreement between the two expired naturally and was not renewed. This marks an important step towards global governance of the Internet as a part of everyday life for people worldwide. ICANN stated on Twitter: “This transition of oversight will help ensure the internet remains open, interoperable, and stable in the long run.
Pop quiz
Which one of the following did IANA allocate addresses to?
A. ARIN
B. RIPE NCC
C. APNIC
D. All of the above
The correct answer is at the bottom of the article.
ICANN manages domain names and allocates IP addresses
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a non-profit organisation based in California, United States, primarily composed of members from the internet community. Established in October 1998, its purpose is to take over tasks related to the internet, including managing domain names and allocating IP addresses. ICANN is a non-profit international organisation that brings together experts from various fields of business, technology, and academia in the global internet community. It is responsible for the spatial allocation of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, assignment of protocol identifiers, management of generic top-level domains (gTLDs) and country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) systems, and management of the root server system. These services were initially provided under contracts with the U.S. government by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and other organisations, with ICANN exercising the functions of IANA.
As a public-private partnership, ICANN is committed to maintaining the stability of internet operations, promoting competition, representing global internet organisations extensively, and formulating policies consistent with its mission through bottom-up and consensus-based processes. ICANN is responsible for coordinating the management of various technical elements of the Domain Name System (DNS) to ensure universal resolvability, enabling all internet users to find valid addresses. It achieves this by overseeing the allocation of unique technical identifiers and authorising top-level domains (such as “.com” and “.info”). However, issues such as financial transaction rules, internet content control, unsolicited commercial emails (spam), and data protection are beyond the scope of ICANN’s technical coordination tasks. ICANN is a non-profit organisation established to undertake functions such as domain system management, IP address allocation, protocol parameter configuration, and management of the root server system, currently managed through agreements between IANA and other entities and the U.S. government.
ICANN has numerous achievements
ICANN introduced a competitive mechanism for registering generic top-level domains (gTLDs), reducing the cost of domain names by 80% and saving consumers and businesses over $1 billion in domain registration fees annually.
ICANN implemented the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), which has been used to resolve over 5,000 disputes related to domain rights, aiming to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
By coordinating with relevant technical groups and stakeholders, ICANN adopted guidelines for using Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs), paving the way for domain registration in hundreds of languages.
ICANN rejected Ukraine’s request to cut off Russia’s global internet connections
The non-profit organisation ICANN, responsible for coordinating global internet management, informed Ukraine that it would not intervene in the country’s war with Russia and rejected Ukraine’s request to cut off Russia’s global internet connections. Amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, multiple governments and companies are tightening financial sanctions against Russia, while others seek to further sanction Russia on the internet.
On February 28, 2022, Ukrainian officials requested that ICANN and the Regional Internet Registry for Europe (RIPE NCC) revoke the domains “.ru,” “.рф,” and “.su,” and they also requested the closure of root servers in Moscow and St. Petersburg. On March 3 of the same year, ICANN responded to Ukraine, rejecting the request and stating that such action falls outside the scope of ICANN’s mission. ICANN CEO Goran Marby stated, ‘As you know, the internet is a decentralised system. No one has the ability to control it or shut it down, and our mission does not extend to taking punitive actions, imposing sanctions, or restricting access to parts of the internet.’
According to ICANN’s official website, ICANN, as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, is a non-profit public service corporation with community members worldwide dedicated to ensuring the security, stability, and interoperability of the internet. Marby expressed personal regret for the suffering of the Ukrainian people in the war but emphasised that ICANN was established to ensure the normal operation of the internet, not to sanction others according to some people’s wishes to influence its operation.
The correct answer is D.
