NewsMax, the other Fair and Balanced white meat, has published an article by Bradley Blakeman, an ex-GWB staffer, telling us that "Obama Surrendering Internet to Foreign Powers".
The freepers are restless.
This amounts to one small step for internationalism and one giant leap for surrendering America's control over an invention we have every right and responsibility to control and manage.
What happened is that the administration finally agreed to give foreign governments and corporations a seat at the table in ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Numbers, which had previously been run by the US Dept. of Commerce. ICANN serves a key function in making the Internet work worldwide.
Some background:
The internet identifies every computer connected to it with a multi-part number, like "208.122.51.48". That's the number for dailykos.com. If you went to the top of your web browser and typed in that number instead of "dailykos.com", you'd get to the dailykos server. The numbers are assigned in blocks to countries and ISPs, so that internet switches can figure out how to route a message from a sending computer across the network to the receiving computer. ICANN assigns the blocks of numbers to countries. Kind of like the phone companies deciding the US is country code 1 and UK is country code 44, and everyone agreeing that when you call internationally, you can enter the country code and the local number, and it'll get there.
A second key element ICANN manages is called "DNS": the Domain Name System. DNS is a fast electronic "phone book", so your computer can look up "dailykos.com" and figure out it's at 208.122.51.48. DNS just translates names into numbers, and all the traffic takes place using numbers. The names are grouped into "top level domains", like the familiar ".com" and ".org". Each country also gets a 2-character top level domain, like ".us", ".uk", ".de" or ".tw" (US, UK, Germany, and Taiwan). (Domains like ".tv" were originally for island country of Tuvalu, and they figured out they could make money by selling names to television shows.) Each top level domain has its own DNS "phone book" to look up the specific names in that domain, and ICANN assigns responsibility for managing it. Using DNS makes it possible for us to access web sites and email using easy-to-remember names instead of obtuse names. It also means that services can be moved from one computer to another, causing a number change, without anyone caring. The name-to-number translators are updated every night.
ICANN does two things: it assigns the top level domains, and it assigns blocks of numbers for each country. That's about it. ( It's also figured out how domains in countries using other languages, like Japan, can use their own alphabet in their names, instead of being restricted to good old American Standard (ASCII) english. And its working hard to manage the transition to a new numbering system with more numbers in it. ) Pretty difficult stuff, actually.
As NewsMax points out, The US did originally create the Internet.
We invented it, and we paid for the research and implementation that made it
possible. We are the freest, most tolerant nation on earth, we believe in the
fundamental right of free speech, and we practice a free market of commerce and ideas.
Uh, OK, that's pretty true. Would have been nice to thank Al Gore for the funding, but I'll let that go.
But then
It is in America's economic and national security interests not to relinquish any control. We are responsible for the control, operation, and functionality of one of the modern world's greatest inventions and most powerful communications network.
What better country to protect the Internet than the United States?
Well, I think we're getting a little exceptional here. ICANN's work is pretty much like figuring out phone numbers and area codes. It's the grunt work needed to make the whole damn system work. It's really boring, but thank God someone does it. And the whole internet system is designed to be completely distributed. By design, it's really hard to break it.
But now, we've let the rest of the world participate. Oh Noes!
The surrender of the Internet will spell disaster for our nation, financially, as well as for safety, security and our standing as a great power that values freedom and the free exchange of ideas and information.
(Net Neutrality excepted, of course.)
Fortunately, the Freepers are here to protect us:
"Obama’s attack on the United States continues. If the world takes over this Internet and censors it, American ingenuity will build a separate net."
"I guess the good news is that Google and Facebook go down..
Both Google and Facebook went around the bend to help elect Obama. Now they’ll crying the blues."
"This new governing body will not changes things drastically immediately. They will take time to slowly gather power and build up a body of reason for needed change to how the internet works. Hackers are the most likely excuse they will use; a need for security.
It is a slow road to serfdom we are on. The free world will end with a whimper and not bang. It is entertainment that is the opiate of the people and not religion. The Christian religion has been the guardian of freedom these last few centuries. Christianity is being exiled by the West and with it goes the guiding light of freedom. "
Consider yourself warned!