U.S. to relinquish remaining control over the Internet

[percysunshine]

It is all over now. The mods will be posting in Russian within six months.


"U.S. officials announced plans Friday to relinquish federal government control over the administration of the Internet, a move that pleased international critics but alarmed some business leaders and others who rely on the smooth functioning of the Web."



U.S. to relinquish remaining control over the Internet - The Washington Post

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[longknife]

Uh, I don't know about the rest of you non-nerdy types, but I had no idea there was any kind of connection between the internet and the US government. So this article really caught my attention. Here's the opening:

U.S. officials announced plans Friday to relinquish federal government control over the administration of the Internet, a move that pleased international critics but alarmed some business leaders and others who rely on the smooth functioning of the Web.

Pressure to let go of the final vestiges of U.S. authority over the system of Web addresses and domain names that organize the Internet has been building for more than a decade and was supercharged by the backlash last year to revelations about National Security Agency surveillance.

And there are some who claim that turning ICANN loose is horrible as it is just another evil corporation that will bring wrack and ruin upon the entire world.

 

[KNB]

If Obama gave the internet to the French, then why would everyone start typing in Russian?

Do a lot of French people speak Russian?

 

[Delta4Embassy]

No nation should have legal authority over the Internet. May have begun in the US, but it's changed since and is now an international/non-state entity. If anyone should have any kind of authority over it it's the UN. Can't think of anything more international than the net.

 

[mudwhistle]

With all of the power-grabbing Obama has been doing why in the Hell would he want to give up control over the internet to foreign powers? When Carter was president he gave up control of the Panama Canal. When Clinton was president he gave technology for 3 stage missile systems to China.

Why do these Democrats keep giving away our advantages to our enemies?

U.S. to relinquish remaining control over the Internet
By Craig Timberg, Published: March 14

U.S. officials announced plans Friday to relinquish federal government control over the administration of the Internet, a move that pleased international critics but alarmed some business leaders and others who rely on the smooth functioning of the Web.

Pressure to let go of the final vestiges of U.S. authority over the system of Web addresses and domain names that organize the Internet has been building for more than a decade and was supercharged by the backlash last year to revelations about National Security Agency surveillance.

The change would end the long-running contract between the Commerce Department and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a California-based nonprofit group. That contract is set to expire next year but could be extended if the transition plan is not complete.

“We look forward to ICANN convening stakeholders across the global Internet community to craft an appropriate transition plan,” Lawrence E. Strickling, assistant secretary of commerce for communications and information, said in a statement.

The announcement received a passionate response, with some groups quickly embracing the change and others blasting it.

In a statement, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) called the move “consistent with other efforts the U.S. and our allies are making to promote a free and open Internet, and to preserve and advance the current multi-stakeholder model of global Internet governance.”

But former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) tweeted: “What is the global internet community that Obama wants to turn the internet over to? This risks foreign dictatorships defining the internet.”

The practical consequences of the decision were harder to immediately discern, especially with the details of the transition not yet clear. Politically, the move could alleviate rising global concerns that the United States essentially controls the Web and takes advantage of its oversight position to help spy on the rest of the world.

U.S. officials set several conditions and an indeterminate timeline for the transition from federal government authority, saying a new oversight system must be developed and win the trust of crucial stakeholders around the world. An international meeting to discuss the future of Internet is scheduled to start on March 23 in Singapore.

The move’s critics called the decision hasty and politically tinged, and voiced significant doubts about the fitness of ICANN to operate without U.S. oversight and beyond the bounds of U.S. law.

“This is a purely political bone that the U.S. is throwing,” said Garth Bruen, a security fellow at the Digital Citizens Alliance, a Washington-based advocacy group that combats online crime. “ICANN has made a lot of mistakes, and ICANN has not really been a good steward.”

Business groups and some others have long complained that ICANN’s decision-making was dominated by the interests of the industry that sells domain names and whose fees provide the vast majority of ICANN’s revenue. The U.S. government contract was a modest check against such abuses, critics said.

U.S. to relinquish remaining control over the Internet - The Washington Post​

 

[Katzndogz]

Because democrats really don't like America or what it stands for.

 

[mudwhistle]

This needs to be stopped.

 

[mudwhistle]

I'm waiting for the expert to show up telling us about how this isn't true, or that there are plenty of advantages to turning stuff over to everyone that hates America.

We may even have people that say we shouldn't be trusted to have this kind of control. Hell, it worked fine before. What the fuck is going on.

 

[boedicca]

It does need to stop. 2014 mid-terms are a good place to begin that.

And a Big Thanks to Obama for the NSA scandal that put the U.S. in a position of having to give up governance of the internets. Let's all look forward to a world where internet liberty is overseen by the equivalent of the U.N. Security Council.

Hopenchange!

 

[Moonglow]

You noticed that the Panama Canal was not in the USA??

You imperialist slay me....Ha!

 

[mudwhistle]

You noticed that the Panama Canal was not in the USA??

You imperialist slay me....Ha!

It's not in Fucken China ether you fucken idiot. But who controls it now?

It's like building a sports car from scratch, spending thousand of dollars fixing it up, then just handing the keys to some asshole that hates our guts. He didn't spend one thin dime to build the thing and now we just turn it over to him?

what is wrong with these people?

 

[boedicca]

If you really think the Panama Canal is the equivalent of the internets, you are stupider than I previously believed.

 

[LonBabby]

Because democrats really don't like America or what it stands for.

That's why repubs are cheering for Putin, right?

 

[mudwhistle]

Because democrats really don't like America or what it stands for.

That's why repubs are cheering for Putin, right?

Sure. We cheered for Putin.

Not like the left cheered Saddam. We simply are saying "We told you so".

That's not cheering.

 

[TooTall]

No nation should have legal authority over the Internet. May have begun in the US, but it's changed since and is now an international/non-state entity. If anyone should have any kind of authority over it it's the UN. Can't think of anything more international than the net.

Now we can look forward to a Web tax to pay for something somewhere else in the world.

 

[Moonglow]

You noticed that the Panama Canal was not in the USA??

You imperialist slay me....Ha!

It's not in Fucken China ether you fucken idiot. But who controls it now?

It's like building a sports car from scratch, spending thousand of dollars fixing it up, then just handing the keys to some asshole that hates our guts. He didn't spend one thin dime to build the thing and now we just turn it over to him?

what is wrong with these people?

Then we should return the statue of Liberty???

Do we own west Germany since the Marshal plan rebuilt that place??? Japan, how much do we own??

 

[mudwhistle]

You noticed that the Panama Canal was not in the USA??

You imperialist slay me....Ha!

It's not in Fucken China ether you fucken idiot. But who controls it now?

It's like building a sports car from scratch, spending thousand of dollars fixing it up, then just handing the keys to some asshole that hates our guts. He didn't spend one thin dime to build the thing and now we just turn it over to him?

what is wrong with these people?

Then we should return the statue of Liberty???

Do we own west Germany since the Marshal plan rebuilt that place??? Japan, how much do we own??

Did your parents feed you with a slingshot when you were little?

The Statue of Liberty was a gift. It serves no national security purpose.

 

[longknife]

Why has nobody answered my original question?

 

[TooTall]

Why has nobody answered my original question?

What question was that?

 

[longknife]

Why has nobody answered my original question?

What question was that?

Let me answer with this:

More about ICANN @ Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Shifting Responsibility to "Global Multistakeholder Community? | Brookings Institution

I read it but still am uncertain if I understand why so many are negative about the change.