FAIRFAX, Va.—Americans for Limited Government senior editor Robert Romano today issued the following statement condemning the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which administers the world’s domain name system, for refusing to rule out a proposal that would take ICANN out from under U.S. law as a California-based corporation and instead incorporate it overseas:
“One of the preconditions under which the U.S. transitioned administration of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions is that would remain under U.S. law as a California-based corporation. Now, the ink on the transition has barely dried, and ICANN refuses to rule out proposals to take the corporation out from under U.S. law, potentially sending ICANN overseas or governed by international law. This is exactly what opponents of the transition warned would eventually happen if the transition proceeded. Congress failed to stop the Obama administration from surrendering U.S. oversight of the Internet, and now sooner than anyone thought we could be paying the price for that negligence. Were those who assured Congress that ICANN would remain in the U.S. lying, or is this a new development, with the international community now being emboldened to finish the job of globalizing the Internet, free of any U.S. legal oversight including antitrust?”
