The News Story: Our Democrat President, attending a Global Initiative Event about the Internet, observed, "A lot of people who have been trying to take this authority away from the U.S. want to do it for the sole purpose of cracking down on Internet freedom and limiting it and having governments protect their backsides instead of empower their people."
During the speakers' panel discussion the President asked Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, if he was worried about the U.S. giving up the ICANN domain administration will lead to to losing internet freedom. Mr. Wales wholeheartedly concurred adding, "People outside the U.S. often say, "Oh, it is terrible. Why should the U.S. have this special power?" His reply, "There is a first amendment in the U.S., and there is a culture of free expression."
Mr. Wales recalled on ICANN panels to be more understanding of differences in cultures. "I have respect for local cultures, but banning parts of Wikipedia is not a local cultural variation that we should embrace and accept. That's a human-rights violation."
The Rest of the Story: I purposely did not mention which Democrat President that was quoted above, but it still should be no surprise on who supports the ICANN under a One World Order U.N. Control Organization. "You might think it is Bill Clinton who would embrace the Obama administration's surrender of U.S. control over the Internet. After all, it was the Clinton administration in the 1990s that invented "multistakeholder" governance of the Internet."
"Instead, Mr. Clinton, appearing on a panel discussion at a recent Clinton Global Initiative event, defended U.S. oversight of the domain-name system and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann. As author of the multistakeholder concept, he knows it is only U.S. control that keeps other governments at bay, allowing stakeholders like engineers and private companies to operate an open Internet."
"The Internet has given people around the world a taste of the First Amendment, but one can expect a quick shift to censorship once countries like Russia and China join as "stakeholders." They have long sought to control the Internet even beyond their borders and would make the most of a new role overseeing the root zone file containing names and addresses of the top-level domains such as .com and .org. The new governing body could censor the Internet everywhere, including in the U.S., by deactivating websites it opposes."
"I just know that a lot of these so-called multistakeholders are really governments that want to gag people and restrict access to the Internet," Mr. Clinton concluded. "We have an obligation not to let that happen." Obama, oh mighty Socialist Comrade Leader, did you even hear what U.S. President Clinton said?
"Congressional hearings on the Obama plan begin this week. The alternative Proposed legislation would retain U.S. control over the ICANN pending a review by the GAO, Government Accountability Office. The big unresolved question still remains on whether the White House has legal authority to transfer U.S. control without congressional approval."
"The Obama plan to abdicate oversight would permanently undermine the permissionless Internet, built under U.S. leadership to enable websites to operate free of government regulation. There should be bipartisan support in Washington for the U.S. to retain its role and protect stakeholders and Web users from repressive regimes. Otherwise, it's the beginning of the end for the open Internet."
CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TO TELL THEM NO TO ICANN TRANSFER!