President Obama’s administration has reiterated calls for increased accountability at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
Government officials claim that changes are needed to ensure that the process of overseeing Internet use and the distribution of Web addresses and top level domain names is more transparent.
Larry Strickling, a U.S. Commerce Department assistant secretary, said that ICANN needs to fully explain any decisions it makes so they can be easily understood by Web users.
He also called on the corporation to listen more to national governments.
Strickling, who runs the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said: “We still have work to do to make the reality of ICANN meet the vision.”
“Whether the ICANN board and management have the discipline and willpower to embrace and implement these recommendations in a serious and meaningful way [is open to debate],” he concluded.
The U.S. government has been calling for a veto over the creation of new top level domain names so it can block any controversial Web address suffixes.