Sen Cruz Schedules Hearing to Examine Internet Governance Transition

Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX) scheduled a hearing for the week of Sept 12 to discuss the US government’s plan to transition its control of the Internet domain’s naming system to a private nonprofit organization. Sen Cruz, who’s helping lead GOP opposition to the scheduled Oct 1 handoff, will chair a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts hearing on Sept 14 to “investigate the possible dangers” of ceding control of the governing body, according to a release from his office.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, an agency housed in the Commerce Department, has held a contract to run the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority for 18 years. NTIA said in August that it will move forward on its plan to hand over control of IANA to a private group of global stakeholders on Oct 1 “barring any significant impediment.” IANA governs the domain names used by Internet service providers to traffic data worldwide. The movement to transition IANA away from Commerce Department control has been two years in the making, with many experts in the Internet community saying it will promote transparency and prevent any one government from having excessive influence over the Internet. However, several GOP lawmakers have been vehemently against the transition. Sen Cruz has previously called the transition plan “an extraordinary threat to our freedom” that “will empower countries like Russia, like China, like Iran to censor speech on the Internet.”