'Trust me' is a bad model for Internet governance

[Commentary] When the US government announced in 2014 that it was relinquishing its historic oversight of the Domain Name System (DNS) -- the technical architecture of the Internet -- stakeholders began working feverishly to construct a secure and stable model for multi-stakeholder Internet governance. The core challenge is that without continued oversight by the US government, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) -- the nonprofit organization responsible for managing these key Internet functions -- would be operating independently without serious checks and balances. To address this problem, concerned stakeholders have been working to reform ICANN's system of governance to ensure it is fully accountable to the Internet community.

With the clock ticking, it is crucial that these reforms move forward so that the transition can succeed. Congress should vigorously continue its oversight of this transition process to make sure these principles do not get brushed aside by ICANN's leadership. Only by putting oversight, accountability and transparency into the DNA of ICANN can we hope to see the multi-stakeholder vision of Internet governance succeed in the years to come.

[Daniel Castro is the vice president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation]