Letter Warns Senate of Adverse Implications in DOTCOM Act

A letter was sent to the Senate supporting the National Telecommunications Information Administration's (NTIA) intent to shift the stewardship of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions to an international multi-stakeholder model of Internet governance.

The letter also voices concerns with the House of Representative's approval of the Shimkus (R-KS) Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which reflects the language of the Domain Openness Through Continues Oversight Matters Act (DOTCOM Act) of 2014.

The DOTCOM Act would effectively stop the NTIA from upholding its commitment to the global Internet governance multi-stakeholder approach.

The following can be attributed to Carolina Rossini, Vice President of International Policy: "The DOTCOM Act stops the United States from upholding it's decades long commitment to the rest of the world that NTIA's stewardship of IANA functions are temporary. A transition would reassure the world of the United States’ commitment to an open, participatory, and decentralized approach to Internet governance.”

She added: "Those who drafted the DOTCOM Act expressed concerns that the multi-stakeholder approach would open the door to Internet governance by authoritarian regimes. However, the DOTCOM Act could have the opposite effect in empowering nations seeing greater governmental control of the Internet."

The signees of the letter are as follows: Public Knowledge, Access, New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, American Civil Liberties Union and Center for Democracy & Technology.