An Internet Giveaway to the U.N. - If the U.S. abdicates internet stewardship, the United Nations might take control
An Internet Giveaway to the U.N.
If the U.S. abdicates internet stewardship, the United
Nations might take control.
By L. GORDON CROVITZ Aug. 28, 2016 5:52 p.m. ET
When the Obama administration announced its plan to give
up U.S. protection of the internet, it promised the United Nations would never
take control. But because of the administration’s naiveté or arrogance, U.N.
control is the likely result if the U.S. gives up internet stewardship as
planned at midnight on Sept. 30.
On Friday Americans for Limited Government received a
response to its Freedom of Information Act request for “all records relating to
legal and policy analysis . . . concerning antitrust issues for the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers” if the U.S. gives up oversight. The
administration replied it had “conducted a thorough search for responsive
records within its possession and control and found no records responsive to
your request.”
It’s shocking the administration admits it has no plan
for how Icann retains its antitrust exemption. The reason Icann can operate the
entire World Wide Web root zone is that it has the status of a legal
monopolist, stemming from its contract with the Commerce Department that makes
Icann an “instrumentality” of government.
Antitrust rules don’t apply to governments or
organizations operating under government control. In a 1999 case, the Second
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the monopoly on internet domains because
the Commerce Department had set “explicit terms” of the contract relating to
the “government’s policies regarding the proper administration” of the domain
system.
Without the U.S. contract, Icann would seek to be
overseen by another governmental group so as to keep its antitrust exemption.
Authoritarian regimes have already proposed Icann become part of the U.N. to
make it easier for them to censor the internet globally. So much for the Obama
pledge that the U.S. would never be replaced by a “government-led or an
inter-governmental organization solution.”
Rick Manning, president of Americans for Limited
Government, called it “simply stunning” that the “politically blinded Obama
administration missed the obvious point that Icann loses its antitrust shield
should the government relinquish control.”
The administration might not have considered the
antitrust issue, which would have been naive. Or perhaps in its arrogance the
administration knew all along Icann would lose its antitrust immunity and look
to the U.N. as an alternative. Congress could have voted to give Icann an
antitrust exemption, but the internet giveaway plan is too flawed for
legislative approval.
As the administration spent the past two years preparing
to give up the contract with Icann, it also stopped actively overseeing the
group. That allowed Icann to abuse its monopoly over internet domains, which
earns it hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
Earlier this month, an independent review within Icann
called the organization “simply not credible” in how it handled the application
for the .inc, .llc and .llp domains. The independent review found Icann
staffers were “intimately involved” in evaluating their own work. A company
called Dot Registry had worked with officials of U.S. states to create a system
ensuring anyone using these Web addresses was a legitimate registered company.
Icann rejected Dot Registry’s application as a community, which would have
resulted in lowered fees to Icann.
Delaware’s secretary of state objected: “Legitimate
policy concerns have been systematically brushed to the curb by Icann staffers
well-skilled at manufacturing bureaucratic processes to disguise pre-determined
decisions.” Dot Registry’s lawyer, Arif Ali of the Dechert firm, told me last
week his experience made clear “Icann is not ready to govern itself.”
Icann also refuses to award the .gay domain to community
groups representing gay people around the world. Icann’s ombudsman recently
urged his group to “put an end to this long and difficult issue” by granting
the domain. Icann prefers to earn larger fees by putting the .gay domain up for
auction among for-profit domain companies.
And Icann rejects the community application for the .cpa
domain made by the American Institute of CPAs, which along with other
accounting groups argues consumers should expect the .cpa address only to be
used by legitimate accountants, not by the highest bidder. An AICPA spokesman
told me he has a pile of paperwork three feet high on the five-year quest for
the .cpa domain. The professional group objected in a recent appeal: “The
process seems skewed toward a financial outcome that benefits Icann itself.”
The only thing worse than a monopoly overseen by the U.S.
government is a monopoly overseen by no one—or by a Web-censoring U.N. Congress
still has time to extend its ban on the Obama administration giving up
protection of the internet. Icann has given it every reason to do so.
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