Sept. 7, 2016, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging Congress to not only defund the Internet giveaway again but also to require the Obama administration to extend the current government contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for another two years and to authorize Congress to take the administration to court should Obama fail to comply with federal statute forbidding the transfer:
“It is clear by now that the Obama administration has failed to do its homework on ceding the IANA functions to ICANN, having apparently based on FOIA responses performed no legal analysis prior to the transition’s announcement in March 2014 on whether it even has the authority to perform the transfer or on the antitrust issues the will arise from creating a global monopoly over the Internet’s domain name system.
“To stop this foolish surrender of a function that has been performed successfully by the government since the Internet was invented, Congress should not only once again defund the transfer, as it has the past two fiscal years, but also should require that the current government contract with ICANN be extended at least another two years, and authorize Congress to take Obama to federal court to prevent the transfer from being performed in defiance of the law.
“The federal government’s stewardship of the Internet has been a success story since the late 1990s, and we’d have to have lost our collective minds to cede oversight to foreign powers that do not hold U.S. interests to heart including the free and open Internet. There is no replacement for the First Amendment’s protection, which is a prerequisite for every action the government undertakes, including overseeing this contract. The surest way to prevent the Internet from being censored is to keep things the way they are, with the Constitution and if necessary the role of federal courts to apply it. Because once government oversight is gone, so too are the Internet’s First Amendment protections.”
Attachments:
Au Revoir to the Open Internet, L. Gordon Crovitz, June 29, 2014 at http://www.wsj.com/articles/gordon-crovitz-au-revoir-to-the-open-internet-1404076280
Halfway to Wrecking Internet Freedom, By L. Gordon Crovitz, Nov. 30, 2014 at http://www.wsj.com/articles/gordon-crovitz-halfway-to-wrecking-internet-freedom-1417387404
An Internet Giveaway to the U.N., By L. Gordon Crovitz, Aug. 28, 2016 at http://www.wsj.com/articles/an-internet-giveaway-to-the-u-n-1472421165
NTIA performed no antitrust analysis even as it proceeded with the creation of Internet monopoly, Aug. 26, 2016 at http://getliberty.org/ntia-performed-no-antitrust-analysis-even-as-it-created-global-internet-monopoly/
NTIA Freedom of Information Act response to Americans for Limited Government requesting antitrust analysis on relinquishing IANA functions to NTIA, Aug. 16, 2016 at https://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/NTIA-No-Records-Response-Antitrust-Analysis-08.16.16.pdf
NTIA FOIA documents fail to show legal authority for Internet governance transfer, June 16, 2015 at http://getliberty.org/ntia-foia-documents-fail-to-show-legal-authority-for-internet-governance-transfer/
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request to National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), March 27, 2014 at http://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/DOC-NTIA-FOIA-re-ICANN-03-27-14.pdf
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) interim response by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), June 30, 2014 at http://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/DOC-NTIA_FOIA-Responsive-Docs-Set1.pdf
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) further response by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, June 15, 2015 at http://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/DOC-NTIA_FOIA-Responsive-Docs-Set2.pdf
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) further response by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Jan. 7, 2016 at https://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/NTIAFOIAResponse1-7-2016.pdf
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) further response by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, March 14, 2016 at https://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/NTIAFOIA3rdSet-3-14-16.pdf
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) further response by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, March 18, 2016 at https://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/NTIAFOIAResponse4thSet3-18-16.pdf
Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Rick Manning.
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