The European commissioner for communications has called for extra governmental control of the internet.
Control of the internet should be more in the hands of government, according to Viviane Reding, EU commissioner for communications.
Currently, much of the internet's governance is in the hands of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann). This not-for-profit corporation makes decisions on looking after the directory of the web, namely domains such as .com.
Icann operates in California under an agreement with the US department of commerce. However, this deal expires at the end of September and Ms Reding has called for changes - firstly, to establish Icann as a private corporation and, secondly, to have an international body to oversee it.
"I trust that [US] president [Barack] Obama will have the courage, the wisdom and the respect for the global nature of the internet to pave the way in September for a new, more accountable, more transparent, more democratic and more multilateral form of internet governance," she explained in a video message.
Ms Reding's announcement follows on from reviews in the UK and the USA of the self-regulatory system used by the internet. Britain has its own version to look after the .uk domain, called Nominet. The organisation's chairman Bob Gilbert has questioned Ms Reding's proposal.
"It is crucial that key infrastructure is managed as closely as possible to the technical and user community, allowing rapid response to threats and quick decisions on investments and innovation," he said in a letter to the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform.
