IGF-USA 2012 Afternoon Plenary: Remarks from Larry Strickling

Brief session description:

Thursday, July 26, 2012 – Larry Strickling, assistant secretary for communications and information and administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration of the US Department of Commerce, spoke about the United States and the global Internet.

Details of the session:

Larry Strickling, assistant secretary for communications and information and administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the US Department of Commerce, highlighted the importance of the multistakeholder model in his afternoon keynote talk at IGF-USA Thursday at Georgetown Law Center.

Larry Strickling speaks during closing plenary at the IGF-USA conference in Washington, D.C. on July 26, 2012.

The NTIA has long been integral in the operation of the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which regulates global domain name policy. While NTIA, on behalf of the US Department of Commerce, reached an agreement with ICANN in 2009to transition the technical coordination of the DNS to a new setting in ICANN under conditions that protect the interests of global Internet users, NTIA represents the US government on ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee and it is still an influential force.

Given the near-infinite reach of Internet services, Strickling emphasized the need to include more global representatives in the process of domain name regulation and the discussion of related issues.

“We have focused on enhanced cooperation and finding ways for the global Internet community to have a more direct say in matters of Internet governance,” he said. “This issue is one of great importance as we head into the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) and World Trade Forum conferences over the next year, where some countries will attempt to justify greater governmental control over the Internet.”

Strickling said the NTIA has made a concerted effort to dissolve the illusion of US control over the Internet infrastructure by showing a heightened respect for the laws of individual countries and finding new ways to address conflicts of interest.

He also expressed his support of greater transparency in all organizations involved in Internet governance, including the International Telecommunication Union, and forcefully restated that the US position on Internet governance is to appropriately limit the role of the government in policymaking.

“Those of us in the US government will work to be as inclusive and transparent as we can be,” he said. “We will push back against calls for more control. Limiting ourselves to the role of facilitator is absolutely key to the ultimate success of the (multistakeholder model). We will press ahead.”

— Katie Blunt