America's Internet Surrender

[Commentary] The Internet is often described as a miracle of self-regulation, which is almost true. The exception is that the United States government has had ultimate control from the beginning. Washington has used this oversight only to ensure that the Internet runs efficiently and openly, without political pressure from any country. This was the happy state of affairs until the Obama administration made the surprise announcement it will relinquish its oversight of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, which assigns and maintains domain names and Web addresses for the Internet.

Russia, China and other authoritarian governments have already been working to redesign the Internet more to their liking, and now they will no doubt leap to fill the power vacuum caused by America's unilateral retreat. The Obama Administration's move could become a political issue in the US as people realize the risks to the Internet. And Congress may have the ability to force the White House to drop its plan. The alternative to control over the Internet by the US is not the elimination of any government involvement. It is, rather, the involvement of many other governments, some authoritarian, at the expense of the US. Unless the White House plan is reversed, Washington will hand the future of the Web to the majority of countries in the world already on record hoping to close the open Internet.