This is surrender of the one place in the world where there is some freedom, the internet. The transfer date is September 30, 2016. Is this a big deal? Yes…..China and Russia don’t have a 1st amendment and it appears only one senator is waging the war to stop the transfer, Ted Cruz.
“From the very first days of the internet, the American government has maintained domain names and ensured equal access to everyone with no censorship whatsoever,” Cruz says in the video. “Obama wants to give that power away.”
That move poses a “great threat” to national security, Cruz said. Starting on the transfer date of Sept. 30, ICANN control could allow foreign governments to prohibit speech that they don’t agree with, he added.
Cruz has added an amendment to the Senate’s Highway Bill that would require an up-or-down vote on the administration’s plan to give ICANN control over names and numbers. And Cruz’s Protecting Internet Freedom Act, proposed with Republican Rep. Sean Duffy (Wis.), would prevent the transfer of authority to the global group. More from The Blaze.
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Twenty-five advocacy groups and some individuals have told leaders in the Senate and the House of Representatives that key issues about the transition are “not expected to be fully resolved until summer 2017.”
“Without robust safeguards, Internet governance could fall under the sway of governments hostile to freedoms protected by the First Amendment,” wrote the groups, which include TechFreedom, Heritage Action for America and Taxpayers Protection Alliance. “Ominously, governments will gain a formal voting role in ICANN for the first time when the new bylaws are implemented.” Read more here from PCWorld.
America to hand off Internet in under two months
WashingtonExaminer: The Department of Commerce is set to hand off the final vestiges of American control over the Internet to international authorities in less than two months, officials have confirmed.
The department will finalize the transition effective October 1, Assistant Secretary Lawrence Strickling wrote on Tuesday, barring what he called “any significant impediment.”
The move means the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, which is responsible for interpreting numerical addresses on the Web to a readable language, will move from U.S. control to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a multistakeholder body that includes countries like China and Russia.
Critics of the move, most prominently Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, have pointed out the agency could be used by totalitarian governments to shut down the Web around the globe, either in whole or in part.
Opponents similarly made the case that Congress has passed legislation to prohibit the federal government from using tax dollars to allow the transition, and pointed out that the feds are constitutionally prohibited from transferring federal property without approval from Congress. A coalition of 25 advocacy groups like Americans for Tax Reform, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and Heritage Action sent a letter to Congress making those points last week.
While those issues could, in theory, lead to a legal challenge being filed in the days following the transfer, the administration has expressed a desire to finish it before the president leaves office, a position that Strickling reiterated.
“This multistakeholder model is the key reason why the Internet has grown and thrived as a dynamic platform for innovation, economic growth and free expression,” Strickling wrote. “We appreciate the hard work and dedication of all the stakeholders involved in this effort and look forward to their continuing engagement.”
