Donald J. Trump has expressed his opposition to the US Government's decision to pass on its power to govern the Internet domain name system (DNS) fully to ICANN - the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
In a statement issued on behalf of the GOP presidential candidate, the Trump Campaign's National Policy Director Stephen Miller said the U.S. should not turn control of the Internet over to the United Nations and the international community.
The United States' National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), part of the Department of Commerce, is set to hand over the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions to ICANN on October 1.
The IANA stewardship transition represents the final step in a nearly 20-year effort by the US Government and Internet multi-stakeholder community to privatize the Internet domain name system.
DNS, one of the Internet's most important components, pairs the easy-to-remember web addresses with their relevant servers. Without DNS, websites can be accessed only by typing in its IP address.
Trump urged the Congress to act quickly to stop President Obama from using his authority to surrender American internet control to foreign powers.
Trump said U.S. oversight has kept the Internet free and open without government censorship. "Internet freedom is now at risk with the President's intent to cede control to international interests, including countries like China and Russia, which have a long track record of trying to impose online censorship", he added.
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