The US Commerce Department has announced that it will allow the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to continue overseeing the internet’s global addressing system for at least another year, despite concerns about its progress. ICANN’s contract with the Department was set to expire at the end of September and this is the third extension which has been granted to ICANN since 1998, when the body was formed by the US government and authorised to regulate the internet domain name system.

Assistant Commerce Secretary Nancy Victory said in a statement that although the Department is “frankly disappointed that ICANN’s progress on the [contractual] tasks thus far has moved so slowly”, it considers the internet body’s “recent broad reform efforts to be a substantial justification for affording ICANN a limited amount of additional time to achieve [the tasks].”

As a condition of the contract renewal, ICANN will be required to continue its internal reform process, which was initiated in February 2002. In addition, ICANN has agreed to address certain issues, including the transparency and accountability of its decision-making and the security of internet functions.

The contract between the parties specifically directs the Commerce Department to engage in “certain activities to assist ICANN”, such as consulting with foreign governments.

The Department concluded that the organisation “cannot achieve full success unilaterally” and invited “other governments and the various internet constituencies” to participate actively in the reform process.

The Commerce Department has said that it will closely monitor ICANN’s efforts and will require it to submit quarterly reports on its progress.

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