The Obama administration is "seeking to give authoritarian regimes
more power to impose censorship on the Web" through giving them more
powers through organisations such as ICANN, says an editorial in the
right-leaning Washington Times.
The editorial says that "as the influence of the Internet has grown,
ICANN has come under increasing scrutiny for foreign governments seeking
more control over the system." It is also a view that is espoused on
many right-wing blogs and comments under articles in the right-wing
press.
The editorial says that the "Bush administration time and again rebuffed
these power-sharing proposals" while in "October 2009 the Obama
administration concluded an agreement with ICANN that increased
international input on Internet governance. ICANN now has a foreign
advisory board representing 100 countries, and the Obama administration
is pushing for them to have veto power over the introduction of new
top-level domains to which they may object."
"O Force propaganda aside, the central issue is not trust but control.
Giving more power to leading Internet censors like China, Iran or Saudi
Arabia won't build confidence, it will simply allow these countries to
be more creative in finding ways to shut down dissent and control
information at much higher levels. The Obama administration's
internationalist approach to Internet governance is a direct expression
of the president's general belief that the United States is too large,
too powerful and has too much influence on world affairs - but moves
toward internationalizing Internet governance will introduce countless
new problems for free communication, commerce and cybersecurity.
"Kowtowing to countries that see freedom as a threat and cyberspace as a
battlespace will only further erode America's global position. Maybe
that is the White House objective."
The full editorial is available from www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/mar/4/obama-to-the-internet-no-icann.
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