Open Internet: Clinton vs. Obama

[Commentary] You might think Bill Clinton would embrace the Obama administration's surrender of US control over the Internet. After all, it was the Clinton administration in the 1990s that invented "multistakeholder" governance of the Internet. Instead, Clinton, appearing on a panel discussion at a recent Clinton Global Initiative event, defended US oversight of the domain-name system and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN.

As author of the multistakeholder concept, he knows it is only US control that keeps other governments at bay, allowing stakeholders like engineers and private companies to operate an open Internet. The Obama plan to abdicate oversight would permanently undermine the permissionless Internet, built under U.S. leadership to enable websites to operate free of government regulation. There should be bipartisan support in Washington for the US to retain its role and protect stakeholders and Web users from repressive regimes. Otherwise it's the beginning of the end for the open Internet.