Washington, D.C. – Senator Johnson released the following remarks on the decision of President Obama’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to  relinquish oversight over the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN):

“The U.S. has always played a leading role in overseeing the management of internet domain names such as .com and .org.  The administration’s decision late Friday night to relinquish that responsibility next year concerns me a great deal.  If it could be accomplished successfully, migrating Internet governance from all governmental control would be a good thing -- as privatizing the Internet domestically has made it one of the greatest deregulatory success stories in our history.  But internationally, the risk of foreign governments gaining control of the Internet must be eliminated.

“Frankly, I do not trust this administration to oversee such an important transition.  The Internet should be governed by a multi-stakeholder model free of all governments.  But as we saw during the 2012 World Conference on International Telecommunications, a treaty negotiation in Dubai, many countries are seeking to play an increased role in Internet governance.  Specifically, in 2011 Vladimir Putin asserted his goal is to have ‘international control of the Internet’ through the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a treaty-based arm of the United Nations.

“Putin has already outmaneuvered the Obama administration on the diplomatic stage due to the president’s empty red-line threats and his tendency to ‘lead from behind.’ As we move into discussions on Internet governance, can we really trust this administration to have the negotiating backbone that is essential to maintaining an independent Internet?

“As a member of both the Senate Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee with oversight over NTIA and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I will be monitoring this transition proposal very closely.  We must stand strong and united against international control of the Internet.  If we do not, it will be the end of Internet freedom.”    

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