The US has been handed a proposal that would end the last vestiges of its control over the internet, sparking a potentially contentious political debate in Washington over the future of cyberspace.

美国接到一项提议，该提议将结束其对互联网域名的管控权，这可能在华盛顿引发围绕网络空间未来的激烈政治辩论。

Under the proposal put forward yesterday by ICANN, the international body that oversees the internet’s addressing system, the US would hand over its role as the ultimate authority for internet naming. ICANN’s governance arrangements would be overhauled to protect it from government meddling in future.

根据监管互联网域名系统的国际机构——互联网名称与数字地址分配机构(ICANN)——昨日提出的建议，美国将让出其在管理互联网域名方面的最高主管角色。ICANN的治理安排将被彻底整改，以保护其未来免受政府干预。

Washington offered two years ago to give up its remaining internet oversight, in response to the international outcry over the Snowden revelations about illicit US internet surveillance.

两年前，华盛顿方面提出放弃手中剩下的互联网控管权，以回应国际上针对斯诺登(Snowden)爆料的、美国对互联网进行非法监听的强烈抗议。

It had promised full privatisation of the internet in 1998, but the idea was put on hold over concerns in Congress that ICANN could become captive to repressive governments.

美国曾在1998年承诺对互联网进行全面私有化，但由于美国国会担忧ICANN可能受制于专制政府，这一想法被搁置。

Stirrings in Washington suggest that such opposition could resurface. Ted Cruz, one of the Republican presidential candidates, and two other senators fired a shot across ICANN’s bows last week with a letter questioning its contacts with China and the risks if it was cut free from US control.

华盛顿方面的迹象似乎表明，此类反对声音可能将重现。上周，共和党总统竞选人之一特德•克鲁兹(Ted Cruz)与另外两名参议员通过一封公开信向ICANN开火，他们质疑该机构与中国的接触以及脱离美国控制可能带来的风险。

Approving a Chinese internet registrar was a sign of the body’s “desire to build a close relationship with the Chinese government which could continue to move in a troubling direction once the US government ends its oversight”, they wrote.

他们写道，批准中文网络域名注册标志着该机构“渴望与中国政府建立密切关系，而一旦美国政府不再进行控管，中国可能继续朝着令人不安的方向前进”。

ICANN has clashed with several countries over how much control they should have over its operations. But despite worries that China and Russia would lead a push for more government control, opposition centred on a wider group of countries that included Argentina, Brazil and France.

ICANN曾与好几个国家就后者应在多大程度上对其运营进行管控发生过冲突。但是，尽管人们担心中国、俄罗斯将带头推动更多的政府管控，但反对态度实际上集中于一个更广泛的国家集团，包括阿根廷、巴西和法国。