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Obama move vs. Internet Freedom Challenged

One of the enduring mysteries of the Obama Administration may be probed in an upcoming Senate hearing.  For reasons that have never been adequately explained, the President decided to end U.S. oversight of key internet functions and replace it with a multinational organization influenced in part by countries that engage in censorship.

A key battle in this most significant free speech fight in decades will take place on September 14, as the Senate Subcommittee on “Oversight Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts” convenes a hearing on the potential watershed moment.

According to a release  by Subcommittee Chair Ted Cruz, “The hearing will investigate the possible dangers of the Obama administration’s proposal to relinquish oversight of the Internet to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), scheduled to take place on October 1. ICANN is a global organization consisting of 162 countries, including authoritarian regimes such as China, Russia, and Iran, which do not have a First Amendment right to free speech.”

The hearing, entitled “Protecting Internet Freedom: Implications of Ending U.S. Oversight of the Internet” is designed to investigate the possible dangers of the Obama administration’s proposal to relinquish oversight of the Internet to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), scheduled to take place on October 1. ICANN is a global organization consisting of 162 countries, including authoritarian regimes such as China, Russia, and Iran, which do not have a First Amendment right to free speech.

Cruz, along with Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) introduced the Protecting Internet Freedom Act in June, which seeks to prevent the Obama administration from relinquishing oversight of critical Internet functions and protect national security by ensuring that the United States maintains sole ownership of key functions. The Texas Senator recently unveiled a “countdown clock” site to promote awareness of the September 30 deadline for Congress to take action to stop the administration’s transition.

The Administration seeks to make its move final by October 1.  There has been no explanation from the White House about the significance of that date, just as there has been no explanation for the reasons for the move at all.

Opponents are engaging in urgent attempts to stop the move. A  website  outlines their concerns: “The Obama administration is pushing through a radical proposal to take control of Internet domains …If that proposal goes through, countries like Russia, China, and Iran could be able to censor speech on the Internet, including here in the U.S. by blocking access to sites they don’t like. Right now, the Obama administration’s proposal to give away the Internet is an extraordinary threat to our freedom and it’s one that many Americans don’t know anything about.”
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Critics of the President’s move note that the White House lacks the funding authority to make the transition. Politico reports that Senator John Thune (R-S.D.), chair of the Commerce Committee, will seek to delay Obama’s internet plans through the upcoming continuing budget resolution.

As noted in a Washington Examiner   interview, “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.”

Numerous organizations advocating free speech and adherence to Constitutional restrictions on presidential spending actions have signed off on a letter to Congressional leaders urging opposition to Obama’s action:

“We write to urge Congress to defend its Power of the Purse—and Internet freedom.

“Our Constitution rests on the idea that the “Power of the Purse” belongs to Congress, not the President … the Administration appears determined to violate clear appropriations prohibiting the transition of the Internet domain system without authorization. If the Administration does not relent, Congress should sue. Congress twice enacted appropriations riders prohibiting any use of taxpayer funds “to relinquish the responsibility of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration [NTIA… This ‘Transition’ would end the U.S. government’s historic role as a guarantor of Internet governance.”

“…Members of both parties should be able to unite around defending the Power of the Purse, the most fundamental Constitutional power of the American People’s elected representatives. If enacted legislation is no longer considered binding, a fundamental check on Executive power will have been lost. Legislators also have a solemn responsibility to future generations to ensure that the future of the Internet is not placed at risk by prematurely ending U.S. oversight…”

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U.S. About to Surrender the Internet. Why?

The passing of control of key areas of the internet from largely U.S. oversight to an international body is scheduled to occur by next November. By the end of the year, the U.S. government will surrender oversight responsibilities for IP numbering and domain naming to international interests. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, (ICANN) gave its transition plan to the U.S. Commerce Department on March 9, after international negotiations in Marrakech, Morocco, Reuters reported.  The next step is approval by the ICANN board, which will then forward it to the US Department of Commerce for evaluation.

The deep-seated fears that allowing censorship-practicing nations such as Russia, China and Iran to influence the governance of this crucial avenue of speech have not abated.

The internet-issues website Fossbytes notes: “In the upcoming days, the U.S. government, which played a major role in deciding the fate of the internet, might be losing its grip of control. According to the reports, not only the US, but all major players are going to have a stake in the control of the Internet in upcoming times…”

Fossbytes also reports that “The United Nations wants to keep the internet open and free at least until the next decade. How successful will it be to keep the internet open and not revise the internet policies for next ten years?”

And of course, all should ask, what happens after ten years? Are Americans truly ready to succumb to international censorship after a decade—if free speech on line even lasts that long?

Writing in Breitbart, John Hayward stated that  “Critics of the move worry that the rest of the world, including much of the West, has nothing close to the United States’ ideological commitment to free speech…since ICANN handover was announced, the rest of the world has merrily gone about validating the fears of these critics by censoring and controlling the Internet every way they can…”

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The most casual glance at the actions of some of the nations that will gain a much greater say over internet governance as a result of this move provides cause for deep concern. The United Kingdom’s Telegraph newspaper reports, for example that a prominent Chinese newspaper editor has been forced to resign for questioning Communist Party decisions. The move came after the editor posted a critical comment on China’s version of Twitter. The Telegraph notes that “China has a huge online censorship apparatus which removes any comments deemed sensitive…The social media accounts of property tycoon Ren Zhiqiang were shut down last month after he drew the attention of authorities for lambasting state media for swearing absolute loyalty to the Communist Party.”

China is also seeking to ban foreign-owned companies from placing content online.

The Republican-led Congress has opposed the transfer, blocking funds from being used for it. The issue has also surfaced in the U.S. presidential campaign.  Ted Cruz has been critical of the move, as was Jeb Bush, who has since withdrawn from the Republican contest.

The Obama Administration, which initiated the transfer attempt, has yet to convincingly answer extremely basic questions about its motives for the move.  How does this benefit Americans, or American values such as free speech? Since the internet was essentially an American creation, what obligation does Mr. Obama feel the U.S. has to surrender control?

(History.com describes the initial creation of the net: “The first workable prototype of the Internet came in the late 1960s with the creation of ARPANET, or the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network. Originally funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, ARPANET used packet switching to allow multiple computers to communicate on a single network. The technology continued to grow in the 1970s after scientists Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf developed Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol, or TCP/IP, a communications model that set standards for how data could be transmitted between multiple networks. ARPANET adopted TCP/IP on January 1, 1983, and from there researchers began to assemble the ‘network of networks’ that became the modern Internet.”)