UN Could Take Control of Internet

The United Nations is likely to take control of the internet if the United States gives up its stewardship, according to The Wall Street Journal columnist L. Gordon Crovitz.

Crovitz, who is a media adviser and former publisher of The Wall Street Journal, says the U.N. would take control because of the Obama administration's "naivete or arrogance."

He based his theory that the U.S. would hand over control to the U.N. based on an inquiry by Americans for Limited Government, an advocacy group that sent a Freedom of Information Act request about the future of the internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), but the request came back saying "there were no records in relation to the request."

Which means the Obama administration has no plan on how to allow ICANN to keep its antitrust exemption, which allows it to be a "legal monopolist," Crovitz said.

The U.S. Department of Commerce has been responsible for managing the internet, and subcontracted the job to the private nonprofit ICANN, according to The Daily Mail.

Without the U.S. contract, ICANN would look for another governmental group to control it, so it can retain that exemption. Crovitz writes that authoritarian regimes want ICANN to become part of the U.N., so that they can more easily censor it.

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