US Can't Abandon Role Overseeing Internet Internationally, O'Rielly Says

The U.S. still has a big role to play in international internet governance and the record shows that abrogating its responsibilities doesn’t work, FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said in a Friday blog post. “Over the last several years, we’ve been lectured by many that the U.S. position on Internet governance was no longer sustainable in the larger, global community,” O’Rielly wrote. “So-called experts claimed that the U.S.’s minimal government involvement in Internet issues was no longer a prudent approach. These ‘experts’ added that if the U.S. just ceded on our sound principles a little bit, authoritarian governments of the world would end their continued effort to seek increased government regulation and control of the Internet. In other words, they sought an appeasement strategy.” The record shows that strategy won’t succeed, he said. In October, the U.S. officially terminated its last remaining contractual relationship with ICANN, he said. Six months later, “authoritarian governments continue to persist in their efforts to have multilateral organizations, such as the UN, regulate the Internet.” One case in point is a recent interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin wherein he said “the ICANN transition did not change its overall stance and Russia will continue to pursue government involvement, perhaps through the U.N.’s International Telecommunication Union, in the workings of the Internet,” O’Rielly said. He pointed to discussions at the ITU’s World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly in Tunisia in October. “Member States specifically discussed such topics as the Internet of Things, cybersecurity, privacy, and the possible regulation of Internet companies and applications,” he said. “Specifically, the ITU Member States embarked on a discussion of the standards needed to facilitate such regulation and deployment.” In March came a position paper from China, “International Strategy of Cooperation on Cyberspace,” China’s “plan to seek global, multilateral governance of the Internet,” he said.