"One of the justifications for giving away U.S. oversight of the Internet's naming conventions is to prevent a supposed fragmentation of the Internet. However, even the Obama administration admits that China is already fragmenting the Internet with its own root zone no matter what the U.S. and ICANN choose to do. Given that Internet fragmentation is a fact, proceeding with Obama's reckless Internet transition is a solution in search of a problem and should be rejected due to its negative impacts on the free and open Internet.
"A private entity has no legal responsibility to uphold First Amendment freedoms of speech and of the press and of religion, so post-transition, there would be no constitutional protection in federal courts afforded to holders of domains using terms like liberty, should China or any other entity prevail in a censorship gambit.
"Moreover, nowhere in the multistakeholder proposal does it actually address the obvious antitrust concerns that arise with ICANN being the world's only resolver of IP addresses and domain names, even though such lawsuits were anticipated in the 1998 Clinton Administration statement of policy that helped to establish ICANN. Either the lawsuits that begin after U.S. oversight and ICANN's antitrust exemption go away will result in a fragmented Internet, or worse, one where ICANN and whoever controls it wielding absolute control over the Internet's naming conventions."
Attachmentd available here.
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Rick Manning (@rmanning957) is President of Americans for Limited Government.
Tags: Rick Manning, testifies, U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, don't Give Away The Internet, First Amendment Freedoms, Free Speech To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
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