Internet Regulations

While there is no central Internet governing body, or a King of the World Wide Web (so to speak), there are Internet regulation bodies that work behind the scenes to keep everything running semi-smoothly. Here are the main Internet regulation entities:

Internet Regulation Groups

• The Internet Society: Provides leadership in addressing issues that confront the future of the Internet, and is the organization home for the groups responsible for Internet infrastructure standards.
• The Internet Architecture Board. Responsibilities include Internet standards and oversight.
• Internet Engineering Task Force. A large open international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers concerned with the evolution of the Internet architecture and the smooth operation of the Internet. It is open to any interested individual.
• InterNIC. Provides public information regarding Internet domain name registration services.
• PFIR-People for Internet Responsibility. A group of people concerned about the present and future operations, development, management, and regulation of the Internet.
• ICANN.org. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a technical coordination body for the Internet.

For more about Internet regulation, and the fight to keep the World Wide Web a neutral entity, read the following resources:

• What is Net Neutrality?
• What Everybody Ought To Know About Net Neutrality
• Pros and Cons of Net Neutrality

For more information about the Internet, read A Short History of the Internet.