News and Research articles on Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)

Management of the internet by the principle of the multistakeholder governance model has survived attempts of replacing it with inter-government management. What additional principles are useful to guide global internet governance and enhance ICANN’s legitimacy, seen in light of recent challenges? Are the disagreements over global internet governance also about diverging understandings of the goals in internet governance?

Coding and encoding rights in internet infrastructure

Stefania Milan, University of Amsterdam
Niels ten Oever, Article 19 & University of Amsterdam
PUBLISHED ON: 17 Jan 2017 DOI: 10.14763/2017.1.442

Do ICANN’s policies and operations have an impact on human rights? Civil society engagement in the organisation seeks to inscribe human rights in internet infrastructure.

Trials and tribulations of changing oversight of core internet infrastructure

Monika Ermert, Heise, Intellectual Property Watch, VDI-Nachrichten

PUBLISHED ON: 5 Nov 2014

The whole family of internet self-governing bodies are busy preparing their takes on how to reign the future Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). As a coordinator of core infrastructure services for naming (ICANN), numbering (Regional Internet Registries) and standardisation (IETF), IANA has been in the middle of quite some fights. This one might well be the biggest one.

New global top-level domain names: Europe, the challenger

Francesca Musiani, MINES ParisTech
PUBLISHED ON: 6 Jun 2013 DOI: 10.14763/2013.2.134

gTLDs are the highest level of domain names in the domain name system, including .com, .net and .org; their number has been restricted to twenty-two for several years. This will change, as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) - the organisation responsible for managing and coordinating the system - rolls out a new gTLDs programme. Businesses and organisations are now able to apply for their own customised top-level domain names. But ICANNs move is mired in controvery, as Francesca Musiani reveals.