After years of criticism, the U.S government is giving up its control of the nonprofit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), NBC News reported. Created in 1998, ICANN operates under the umbrella of the U.S. Dept. of Commerce and oversees the distribution of "top-level domains" (think .com, .org, and .edu). In recent years many have questioned whether one government should have so much control over the Internet. This sentiment was amplified after leaks released by whistleblower Edward Snowden suggested that the U.S. National Security Agency has been undermining Internet infrastructure around the globe for its own purposes.
