New US President Donald Trump has nominated 79-yeal-old billionaire Wilbur Ross for the post of secretary of commerce. At his confirmation hearing at the US Congress in the end of last week Ross was asked whether he was planning to increase US influence over ICANN. (National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which earlier performed IANA functions, is part of the Department of Commerce). Senator Ted Cruz asked that question, he was one of the most vocal opponents of the transfer of IANA functions to the Internet community that took place in autumn last year.
When answering the question, Wilbur Ross said that he was “a little surprised” that the USA “as such a big market and really as the inventors of the Internet” it seems are “essentially voiceless”. He added that he didn’t consider this decision to be very reasonable. Author at Domain Incite, Kevin Murphy highlights that Wilbur Ross sees the situation in the wrong light. First of all, the US has the same impact as other countries having representatives in the Governmental Advisory Committee of ICANN. Secondly, the actual influence of the US is much greater. ICANN, being an independent corporation, according to the new regulations, has to retain its headquarters in California and, therefore, remain under the US jurisdiction.
Wilbur Ross pointed out that at the moment he doesn’t know “what it is that we actually can do right now”. He also said that “if some realistic alternatives come up”, he’d be interested.
