Dear Taxpayer, On March 14 2014, the Department of Commerce announced that the United States would relinquish the remaining control it has over the Internet. Currently the U.S. contracts out the job of managing domain names to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The announcement from the Commerce Department effectively lets this contract lapse and this power will come under an undefined international control. This move is dangerous and will be detrimental to the freedom we enjoy online. Once out of our hands, countries known for oppressive censorship can take charge and ruin the internet as we know it today. As much as those in favor of relinquishing control will try to tell you that this is a step towards Internet freedom, it is clear to see by who ICANN employs that this is not the case. In 2012 they hired Tarek Kamel as a senior advisor to the President and CEO of ICANN. While this name may not sound familiar to you, Kamel was the Egyptian Minister of Communications and Information Technology until February 2011. He is best known for being responsible for shutting down the Internet during the Arab Spring Revolution of 2011. We need to make sure that the Department of Commerce does not relinquish this power that ensures our freedom over the very technology that our country created. We cannot hand over this kind of control to a non-profit that employs such disgraced officials like Kamel, who denied his people the fundamental right to free flowing information online. If this action does go through there may not be an immediate effect, but the real problem is that it will remove the United States from being a backstop in ensuring that the freedom of the Internet is not hindered in any way. Congressman John Shimkus (R-IL-15) introduced the DOTCOM Act to protect the Internet from bad actors. The bill outlines a path for research on whether the process of handing over control of the Internet would be detrimental to Americans and the internet using community worldwide. This bill introduces a process for checking the legitimacy of the Administrations proposal; a process which will likely determine the transfer of ICANN to an ambiguous international body to be harmful. At this time the administration has not created or even produced an idea of how this type of hand over would happen to prevent ill effects. Click here to urge your Congressman to support Rep. Shimkus DOTCOM Act. In Liberty, Grover Norquist President, Americans for Tax Reform
Posted on: Tue, 08 Apr 2014 21:23:50 +0000
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