ICANN

The World Wide Web and its underlying network architecture (the Internet) is arguably the most significant technological achievement of the last 100 years. The Internet has grown and prospered under ICANN—Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers—a quasi-governmental organization controlled by the United States.

In what may be the last in a long line of horrendously bad policy decisions, the Obama administration has decided to cede control of ICANN, allowing it to become either a free-wheeling monopoly or even worse, an organization controlled by the United Nations. What could go wrong?

L. Gordon Crovitz comments:

When the Obama administration announced its plan to give up U.S. protection of the internet, it promised the United Nations would never take control. But because of the administration’s naiveté or arrogance, U.N. control is the likely result if the U.S. gives up internet stewardship as planned at midnight on Sept. 30 ...

When the Obama administration announced its plan to give up U.S. protection of the internet, it promised the United Nations would never take control. But because of the administration’s naiveté or arrogance, U.N. control is the likely result if the U.S. gives up internet stewardship as planned at midnight on Sept. 30.

On Friday Americans for Limited Government received a response to its Freedom of Information Act request for “all records relating to legal and policy analysis . . . concerning antitrust issues for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers” if the U.S. gives up oversight. The administration replied it had “conducted a thorough search for responsive records within its possession and control and found no records responsive to your request.”

It’s shocking the administration admits it has no plan for how Icann retains its antitrust exemption. The reason Icann can operate the entire World Wide Web root zone is that it has the status of a legal monopolist, stemming from its contract with the Commerce Department that makes Icann an “instrumentality” of government.
It’s shocking the administration admits it has no plan for how Icann retains its antitrust exemption. The reason Icann can operate the entire World Wide Web root zone is that it has the status of a legal monopolist, stemming from its contract with the Commerce Department that makes Icann an “instrumentality” of government.

I suspect that if reporters asked Donald Trump about his position on ICANN he wouldn't know what it was, and if reporters asked Hillary Clinton ... oh wait ... Hillary doesn't answer questions from reporters because ... well, just because. Even more amusing, those same reporters don't seem to mind -- but I digress.

Better yet, one wonders what the Democrats think about ICANN. Will they continue their Stepford Wives march behind Obama's bad decisions, or for once, will they voice their concerns and put a stop to this?

Crovitz continues:

Without the U.S. contract, Icann would seek to be overseen by another governmental group so as to keep its antitrust exemption. Authoritarian regimes have already proposed Icann become part of the U.N. to make it easier for them to censor the internet globally. So much for the Obama pledge that the U.S. would never be replaced by a “government-led or an inter-governmental organization solution.”

Rick Manning, president of Americans for Limited Government, called it “simply stunning” that the “politically blinded Obama administration missed the obvious point that Icann loses its antitrust shield should the government relinquish control.”

The administration might not have considered the antitrust issue, which would have been naive. Or perhaps in its arrogance the administration knew all along Icann would lose its antitrust immunity and look to the U.N. as an alternative. Congress could have voted to give Icann an antitrust exemption, but the internet giveaway plan is too flawed for legislative approval.

The Democrats (and GOP) in the U.S. Congress have acceded to far too many BAD policy decisions by the Obama administration. The Internet works quite well with the current ICANN structure. It's time for congress to stop Obama from modifying that structure.

Barack Obama is opening the door to an Internet that could be censored by rogue regimes, controlled by a corrupt and incompetent UN, and otherwise ruined in ways we can't even imagine. Like everything from Obamacare to the Iran "deal," the ideas floated and implemented by his Team of 2s are poorly thought out and fraught with potential blowback that hurts the United States and its citizens and businesses. But that never stopped them before and certainly it won't stop them now.