The US-owned ICANN has control over Internet domain names and registrations. Ceding control to a multi-national organization will allow
(non)freedom-loving states like China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, et al. to gain control over how the Internet works. If you prefer an Internet with few controls, that will be a Bad Thing.
From Wiki:
The
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (
ICANN /ˈaɪkæn/ EYE-kan) is a nonprofit organization that is responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces of the
Internet - thereby ensuring the network's stable and secure operation.
[1] ICANN performs the actual technical maintenance work of the central Internet address pools and
DNS Root registries pursuant to the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (
IANA) function contract.
Much of its work has concerned the Internet's global
Domain Name System, including policy development for internationalization of the DNS system, introduction of new generic
top-level domains (TLDs), and the operation of
root name servers. The numbering facilities ICANN manages include the
Internet Protocol address spaces for
IPv4 and
IPv6, and assignment of address blocks to
regional Internet registries. ICANN also maintains registries of Internet protocol identifiers.
ICANN's primary principles of operation have been described as helping preserve the operational stability of the Internet; to promote competition; to achieve broad representation of the global Internet community; and to develop policies appropriate to its mission through
bottom-up, consensus-based processes.
[2]
