Fergie's Tech Blog

The Internet again in the political crosshairs

Declan McCullagh writes in C|Net News:

Social conservatives helped to re-elect President Bush last year. Now his administration is returning the favor with a crackdown on sexually explicit material.

As usual, the Internet is in the political crosshairs. The Family Research Council recently demanded that the Bush administration do something about the .xxx domain--a zone reserved for adult content and set for final approval this month.

The administration was happy to oblige. Michael Gallagher, assistant secretary at the Commerce Department, asked for .xxx to be put on hold. Now its future is uncertain.

Also, Milton Mueller writes over at CircleID that the Internet Governance Project (IGP) is asking for comments on the U.S. Government's intervention on this matter:

Responding to the .xxx intervention by the US Commerce Department, the Internet Governance Project has produced a "STATEMENT OPPOSING POLITICAL INTERVENTION IN THE INTERNET'S CORE TECHNICAL ADMINISTRATIVE FUNCTIONS." You can view the statement here and add your name as a signatory at the bottom. Over 60 people have endorsed it.

The Statement claims that "The NTIA's recent intervention in the .xxx proceeding undermines assurances" that the U.S. government's special unilateral authority over ICANN "would never be used to shape policy but was only a means of protecting the stability of the organization and its processes." The NTIA's open acknowledgment of the influence of religious groups made the intervention particularly dangerous.

The Statement notes that "The new voice and power being given to national governments contrasts sharply with the powerlessness of individual domain name registrants within ICANN, who, despite being the most significant stakeholder in the system, were deprived of their right to vote for ICANN Board members in 2002."

posted by Fergie @ 8/29/2005 05:37:00 AM