September 14, 2016 | No Comments
Sen. Ted Cruz tangled with a top Commerce Department official Wednesday over the Obama administration’s plan to give up authority over the internet’s domain name system, with Cruz warning it could allow countries to punish people for “political dissent” and “blasphemy.”
“Imagine an internet run like many Middle Eastern countries that punish what they deem to be blasphemy,” Cruz said in opening remarks. “Or imagine an internet run like China or Russia that punish and incarcerate those who engage in political dissent.”
In a sometimes heated exchange with Cruz, Larry Strickling, an assistant Commerce secretary overseeing the transition, said the Texas senator’s claim that First Amendment rights are risked “doesn’t comport with the facts.”
“When you posit that there is some First Amendment protection that exists today, when you talk about website owners, we’re not involved in that,” Strickling said.
Cruz said it was “remarkable and distressing” to see an Obama administration official saying he “doesn’t know what I’m talking about.”
The tense hearing marks the latest flash point in the accelerating debate over the administration’s plan to hand over control for the internet’s back-end functions to the global community.
The Commerce Department, which announced the transition plan in 2014, says it was always envisioned that U.S. oversight would be temporary and that the “multistakeholder” model would operate on its own. In practice, that means the government would untether the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the nonprofit that has handled domains like .com and .org under a U.S. contract for years.
But as the Oct. 1 date for the transition approaches, Republicans, who were never fond of the plan, have amped up their warnings that removing U.S. oversight could effectively cede power to authoritarian governments like Russia and China and allow them to promote censorship. Cruz has made the issue a top priority as he jumps back into the congressional fray following his GOP presidential bid.
The tech industry backs the administration’s plan and in recent days has provided full-throated support, with companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon telling congressional leaders that the strategy will assure a stable internet and is in the best interests of the U.S.
In the wake of Edward Snowden’s revelations about NSA surveillance, the tech sector has grown sensitive to complaints from European and other countries that the U.S. has too much control over the internet — and it sees ICANN, which is based in California but has global reach, as the best path forward. Tech firms want to avoid placing internet oversight in the hands of the International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations agency that, it’s feared, could give individual countries more sway over how the internet is run.
Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, in a speech in Washington Wednesday, urged members of the President’s Export Council, including Xerox, IBM and UPS, to “speak out in support” of the ICANN transition.
The GOP-controlled Congress has temporarily blocked the Commerce Department from using funds on the internet transition, and Republicans like Cruz have called for the restriction to be extended as part of the continuing resolution that funds the government beyond Sept. 30. Cruz hasn’t indicated whether he’s willing to cause a government shutdown over the issue.
But the Government Accountability Office threw a wrench into the potential GOP strategy on Tuesday, saying Commerce is permitted to tap any unused funds for the transition, giving the agency a potential workaround. The GAO also said it’s “unlikely” that the domain name system is government property, casting doubt on claims by some Republicans that the administration’s move to transfer it would violate the Constitution.
Tony Romm contributed to this report.