The US government plan to move control of the internet’s naming and numbering functions to ICANN next month may not move forward, reports Kieren McCarthy: “In a letter from the Department of Commerce (DoC) to ICANN sent August 31, the department’s CFO gives the organization 30 days’ notice that it may extend its current contract over the critical IANA functions by a year. In other words, Uncle Sam will continue to oversee ICANN’s running of IANA for another 12 months. That contract is due to terminate on September 30, and following a two-year process started by the US government and run by the internet community, ICANN is due to take over full control.”

— McCarthy: “In the heart of election season, it is not inconceivable that Congress will agree to that ‘significant impediment,’ but it won’t happen if Ted Cruz – who remains widely disliked within Congress – is the only standard-bearer of the move to disrupt the transition.”

— “Countdown to IANA transition is not the countdown to doomsday,” said Michele Neylon, earlier today on CircleID: “The transition will result in the US government losing its special relationship with the IANA functions. That’s all that will change and for the average internet user or business nothing will be impacted. The only ‘tangible’ impact will be in how changes to the IANA functions are processed in the future. Which, again, has no impact on the average internet user.”

— I have advocated that there is “No Legal Basis for IANA Transition,” says Sophia Bekele: “My recent letter to Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) certainly have helped in identifying the majority of the key issues that the Congress is now forming its opinion on and it has vindicated me. We now see an activated campaign against this transition by various senators supporting it, highlighting the same issues. A legislation process is in progress to block this transition as part of the Republican policy… Even before such open statements were made by the respective parties, I rightfully predicted in my public commentary to The Hill [November 2016 Elections will determine fate of Internet Privatization; Fixing what is not broken] and rightfully so, we will be waiting for this outcome.”