Why Republicans Are Against Obama Privatizing Internet Governance
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Some Republicans in Congress argue the Obama administration’s final plan to effectively privatize Internet governance constitutes a federal government internet giveaway and effectively monopolizes web domain pricing, reports Fortune.
The National Telecommunications & Information Administration announced it will transfer internet domain name authority from the federal government to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) on Oct. 1.
The NTIA says the move won’t affect internet users in any meaningful way, according to a Wall Street Journal report, but it’s necessary to prevent governance fragmentation between nations as the Internet continues to grow and expand.
“The senators’ primary beef was with the Internet domain name registration company Verisign, which ICANN exclusively works with to register web domains,” reports Chauncey L. Alcorn. “The lawmakers complain fully transferring the federal government’s domain naming process over to ICANN gives Verisign exclusive authority to name its own price for the domain name registration process.”
