Hopefully, the Wall Street Journal will not put this article behind a paywall if it does I can post the text in a comment. This is an interesting piece, a story I have not followed, but it seems important enough to put it out there for comment and discussion. Essentially the piece states that the Obama administration is going to let the US contract with ICANN (the organization that has control over the root of all internet addresses (e.g. the www part of a web address).
This is concerning for a number of reasons. Right now ICANN has monopoly protection because it has direct oversight from the US government. With that gone, as the piece points out, there may be a challenge by authoritarian states to ICANN’s legitimacy.
Could this spell the end of a free (not cost wise but content wise) and open internet? I have to say it, but this is one situation where I think I may actually agree with Sen. John Thune and Rep. Fred Upton (Commerce) and Sen. Chuck Grassley and Rep. Bob Goodlatte (Judiciary), and let’s be honest, I do not agree with these four very often.