U.S. to Maintain Internet Governance

Leaders at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunisia have agreed to keep, for now, governance of the Internets domain name system in the hands of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the California-based nonprofit group that answers to the U.S. government.

A number of countries had joined the European Unions call for the Internet to have more global oversight, prompting criticism and suspicion that the United Nations ultimately wanted to take over control of the World Wide Web.

The WSIS is recommending the creation of the Internet Governance Forum to encourage dialogue among countries interested in the Internets future and to build on existing governance mechanisms.