Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker explains why Sen Ted Cruz is wrong about the internet

“The internet is not controlled by one entity,” Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker said. “ICANN will continue to manage the domain name system, as they have for a long time. It’s been always the intention that the U.S. government would withdraw from this role.”

She argued that letting America’s direct involvement in the domain name system expire made the web less at risk of being politicized, not more, because it minimized the role of all governments. “In 2012, Russia, China and 89 countries came together and said, ‘The United States plays a role in the internet, and if a government’s going to do that, we should move the management and oversight of the internet to the UN,’” Sec Pritzker said. “That would be bad. Our position, as a country and our administration, is that we should have a free and open internet that’s managed by a multi-stakeholder community.”