US govt tells ICANN: No accountability, no keys to the internet

America's assistant commerce secretary Larry Strickling has told domain-name overlord ICANN that without improvements to its accountability the US government will not hand over the crucial IANA contract.

IANA is the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, a department of ICANN that oversees the DNS system keeping the internet glued together, the allocation of IP addresses, and other crucial behind-the-scenes bits of online life.

ICANN has a contract with the US Department of Commerce's NTIA body to run IANA, and that contract is coming to an end. That contract allows the US government to keep ICANN in check and out of the wrong hands. Now ICANN is under increasing pressure to prove it's up to the job of keeping IANA, and by extension the whole internet, running smoothly all by itself once the US contract expires.