Ceding the Internet to “Global Governance”

Brett Schaefer / October 05, 2009

Last month, President Obama proudly announced at the United Nations the steps taken under his administration to “embrace a new era of engagement” in international affairs by correcting the actions of past administration that might lead people to “question the character and cause” of America including supporting the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, addressing global warming through the U.N., joining the Human Rights Council, signing the Disabilities Convention, supporting the Millennium Development Goals, and paying America’s arrears to the United Nations without asking the organization to implement reforms to prevent those payments from being misused.

Well, we can add another dubious decision to the list of sacrifices the Obama Administration has made to alter of international engagement. Today it was announced that the Obama Administration had agreed to cede much U.S. control over the non-profit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) that regulates and manages the Domain Name System under which Internet Protocol addresses and registration of top-level domains like .org and .com are assigned. According to a story in the Guardian: (more…)