The EU is pushing the U.S. to Globalize Internet Governance

The European Union's executive body is raising pressure to reduce U.S. influence over the Internet's architecture amid what it called weakened confidence in the network's governance after revelations of U.S. surveillance. 

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, will propose on Wednesday the adoption of "concrete and actionable steps" to globalize essential Web functions—including the assignment of so-called top-level domain names, such as ".com" or ".org"—that remain contractually linked to the U.S. government, according to a draft policy paper seen by The Wall Street Journal.

An attendee at a global hackers' convention in 

Hamburg in December. Getty Images

The European executive arm will also propose establishing a timeline for fully internationalizing the U.S.-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which oversees key aspects of the Internet's infrastructure to ensure digital traffic is routed properly, the document says. 

 "Large-scale surveillance and intelligence activities have…led to a loss of confidence in the Internet and its present governance arrangements," the document states.

The EU proposal builds on steady European pressure in recent years to speed up the internationalization of the Internet's governance. It also attempts to position the bloc as a key broker in coming negotiations over technical rules governing the Internet—bridging a gap between the U.S. and countries such as Russia and China, which have pushed for more government control of the Web. 

The U.S. Commerce Department has said it is in favor of—and is participating in—discussions over the future of Internet governance. But it hasn't weighed in specifically on whether it would cede indirect control of certain elements of Internet architecture that it grants to ICANN under contract.

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