By Victor Thorn
Could political officials from countries without the First Amendment like China, Nigeria, France or Israel decide what information can be published on the Internet by United States citizens? Will UN bureaucrats be capable of imposing global Internet taxes on American companies while at the same time censoring anything internationalists deem to be in poor taste? All of these scenarios may become actualities next year if the Obama administration’s plans to relinquish control of the World Wide Web come to fruition.
As it currently stands, a nonprofit Los Angeles-based firm named the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) works in conjunction with the Department of Commerce to assign Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and domain names, kind of like virtual parking spaces where people can place their content.