In December 2012, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) hosted a meeting in Dubai to discuss issues related to internet governance. More than 1,500 delegates from around the world attended, including from national governments, industry, and civil society and advocacy organisations.
At the time, a number of countries wanted to limit the global regulatory powers of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the company licensed by the US Department of Commerce to co-ordinate technical aspects of the internet, like the Domain Name System and Internet Protocol addresses. Most of the countries wanted the ITU to take over Internet governance.
