Congress, Return Internet Control to the U.S.

On October 1 the Obama administration transferred a key Internet supervision function from oversight by the U.S. Commerce Department to oversight by an unaccountable international "multi-stakeholder" entity known as ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). It appears that ICANN will end up under the supervision of the United Nations.

A few Republicans fought to block this transfer, but were unsuccessful in persuading Congress to act.

To understand just how bad this situation can get, consider this excellent article, "Chinese Tyrant Seeks Global Control After Obama Gave Up Internet," which was posted on TheNewAmerican.com on November 16. Here's a key quote from this article:

The mass-murdering Chinese regime, along with its totalitarian allies worldwide, has actually been pushing for global control of the Internet and a crackdown on online freedom for many years. But now, with Communist Chinese agents installed at the head of key United Nations agencies, and globalists in the West increasingly hostile to free speech, Beijing seems to think the time is right to strike.

Just think for a few moments of how incredibly important the Internet is for empowering citizens to expose and oppose the powerful special interests and establishment elites who run our nation and the world, not to mention the importance of the Internet for business, education, politics, social interactions, communications, personal security, etc.

Those of us who understand the profoundly important role that the Internet plays in our lives cannot stand by and allow the Obama administration to make this unconstitutional transfer of U.S. property to a UN-aligned entity, which in turn could end up handing Internet control over to China, without a fight.

The Obama-UN Internet surrender is not irreversible; however, Congress must act soon to reassert U.S. control of the Internet.

Back on September 21, President-elect Donald Trump's chief policy adviser said: Donald J. Trump is committed to preserving Internet freedom for the American people and citizens all over the world. The U.S. should not turn control of the Internet over to the United Nations and the international community.

Congress will be meeting from mid-November to mid-December in a lame-duck session. Given Trump's position in favor of retaining U.S. control of the Internet and his increased influence as president-elect, we can be hopeful that both houses of Congress will take action to reverse the Internet giveaway of October 1. If President Obama were to veto such action, it would be just a few weeks wait until Congress could pass the same legislation again and get Trump's signature.

Please phone your representative (202-225-3121) and senators (202-224-3121) and urgently request that they pass legislation to return control of the Internet to the U.S. government. Tell them that the Internet plays such a profoundly important role in all of our lives that Congress must not permit it to be transferred over to international control.

Please also email this message to your congressmen. Thanks. Your Friends at The John Birch Society