How does the ICANN work and what power does it have over the working of the internet?

Question

How does the ICANN work and what power does it have over the working of the internet?

In: 16

Answer 1

ICANN is not an executive authority of the internet; it doesn’t really have any power over what websites choose to display or what they can do. What ICANN does it coordinate people’s and companies IP addresses with a domain name. They keep a list of all the info so that duplicates aren’t made, and they oversee popular top level domain names like .com which is owned by the Verisign Corporation.

Suppose your address is 1892 Roadville Block C and you sell baked goods. You want to advertise your shop so you can grow big and attract attention. What ICANN basically does is label your home address (IP Address in internet terms) with a classy title, so something like “Bob’sBakedGoods.com” and is publishes this data online so that everyone can see “Wow, this bob guy has a bakery. I want to go visit his shop (website).”

ICANN works because it does a good job, is nonprofit, and because people recognize it and fund it which gives it power to do all this. In the early internet days, ICANN didn’t used to exist. It was created by the US government to more allow the web to run more smoothly but has since expanded to be free of any government agency.

That being said, you don’t *have* to rely on ICANN. You could set up a website that works based off your IP Address or DNS, which would resemble a long string of numbers. Or you could create your own custom domain or use one that ICANN doesn’t control, like .se, but that is even more difficult and expensive because it means you host and handle everything yourself.

ICANN is like FIDE in chess or IUPAC in chemistry, they don’t *technically* have executive authority in that you have to follow them, they’re just accepted because they’re large, well organized, and have a reputation for being reliable. You could in theory rename the Silver element to “Bdlfhwi” yourself, getting people to accept it would be another thing. Or you could say that “The king can now move like a horse” and dictate rules for your own modified version of chess.