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States Sue Obama Administration in Last-Ditch Effort to Stop US From Giving Up Control of Internet
Townhall.com ^ | September 30, 2016 | Leah Barkoukis

Posted on 09/30/2016 5:38:20 AM PDT by Kaslin

Republican attorneys general from Nevada, Texas, Arizona, and Oklahoma are suing the Obama administration in a last-ditch effort to stop the U.S. from giving up control of the internet’s domain name system.

“Trusting authoritarian regimes to ensure the continued freedom of the internet is lunacy,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement. “The president does not have the authority to simply give away America’s pioneering role in ensuring that the internet remains a place where free expression can flourish.”

The AGs … asked a judge late Wednesday to step in and stop the transition to an international oversight body, after GOP lawmakers failed to stall the move as part of a short-term spending bill. 

Paxton was among the four Republican AGs who filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court Southern District of Texas, Galveston Division. 

The U.S. government has been in charge of domain names for more than three decades, thanks to a Commerce Department agency's oversight of an obscure, but powerful, Los Angeles-based nonprofit called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). 

The lawsuit argues that if the transfer takes place, as it’s scheduled to on Oct. 1, people will “lose the predictability, certainty, and protections that currently flow from federal stewardship of the Internet and instead be subjected to ICANN’s unchecked control.” 

The suit argues the looming transfer violates the property clause in the U.S. Constitution which prohibits handing over government property without Congress’ approval. The suit also claims the handoff would violate First Amendment rights and says ICANN, the nonprofit owners in control, would be unchecked and could start to censor speech. […]

Republicans in Congress, though, have long-objected to the transfer, which they called a “giveaway” to the rest of the world. They argue that handing over control to a non-government entity would give countries like Russia and China the ability to control online speech – something supporters categorically deny. 

The new lawsuit also claims ICANN “has a documented history of ignoring or operating outside of its governing bylaws.”

“Nothing protects the Plaintiffs from additional occurrences of ICANN oversight failures,” the suit says.

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai warned Americans on the “Sean Hannity Show” Wednesday that giving up control to ICANN should be worrisome for anyone who values “free expression and free speech rights generally.”


TOPICS: Front Page News; US: Arizona; US: Nevada; US: Oklahoma; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: 0bamaadmin; icann; internet; lawsuit
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To: jsanders2001

“If Texas weren’t around Soros would have already accomplished his mission 4 years ago.”

I’m glad we put Paxton in that position. He has been active about conservative issues. He’s taking the arrows for us. Predictably, the libs have a lawsuit pending against him about something or another - just like they did with Perry’s imaginary wrongdoings when he was being a burr in their saddle. That all vanished after he dropped out of the race.


21 posted on 09/30/2016 7:54:09 AM PDT by mom of young patriots
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To: Democrat_media

Obama’s dream has been to be head of the UN .... he’ll also then control the internet if the US gives up control now. Imagine what a nightmare that will be .... Obama will act like he’s god of the world. If you think he’s insufferable now, just wait ‘til he’s out of office.


22 posted on 09/30/2016 7:55:29 AM PDT by Qiviut (In Islam you have to die for. The God I worship died for me. [Franklin Graham])
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To: Qiviut

Yes that’s it Obama wants to head the UN . Then he can continue his destruction of the U.S. and freedom


23 posted on 09/30/2016 8:15:53 AM PDT by Democrat_media (One more day till Obama hands over the internet to Muslim controlled UN. we are don)
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To: Kaslin

The AGs … asked a judge late Wednesday to step in and stop the transition to an international oversight body, after GOP lawmakers failed to stall the move as part of a short-term spending bill.

GOP lawmakers failt to stall the move.....F*ck, they didn’t even try to stall the move. They want the propaganda machine just as much as obama and clinton. As these last, almost 24 years has passed, and I really started paying attention, I always thought that if given the chance I’d get rid of about 500 or so members of Congress, plus their staff’s. I thought that out of 535 member, Reps and Sens, that there might be at least 35 or so, that were decent humans and good Americans. Even some Dem’s, actually, maybe.

But now, even wit the likes of Cruz, Lee, Chaffetz, the Freedom Caucus, etc etc etc, each and every single one of them needs to go. Term limits, have to have them. I think no more than 6 years for a Rep and ABSOLUTELY get rid of the 17th Amendment. Let the states decide who goes to the Senate. Hell if we had that, the Senate would have been veto proof, or darn close, for most of obama’s presidency. And definitely shorten the amount of time they NEED to be in DC, “fixing” all the problems. These stupid mother*ckers do more harm in a week, that it’s hard to imagine.


24 posted on 09/30/2016 8:17:33 AM PDT by qaz123
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To: jsanders2001
I clicked on the link to the paper work:

COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATORY AND INJUNCTIVE RELIEF AND APPLICATION FOR TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER AND PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION

25 posted on 09/30/2016 8:32:27 AM PDT by Stanwood_Dave ("Testilying." Cop's don't lie, they just Testily{ing} as taught in their respected Police Academy.)
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To: DonaldC; All

Well it was nice knowing you Internet and free speech . Tomorrow if the Texas lawsuit doesn’t stop Him Obama will give away control of the Internet to the Muslim (57 Muslim countries) controlled UN. Most countries in the world don’t hold our values of free speech. We the USA controlled the Internet now Obama wants to give it to the UN before Trump gets elected or to fix the election.

Google , facebook etc already censor. You think after 57, 57 Muslim countries put pressure on Google they won’t censor? think again

I’m not saying it’s going to happen tomorow but eventually it will , the timetable ? who knows? I’m sure Obama wanted to get this done before the election to fix it.

The texas lawsuit could stop it today or President Trump could find a way . those are our only hopes

How long before the UN Controlled Internet shuts down freee speech on the Internet ? eventually it will happen

This Obama Internet giveaway to the UN is the end of free speech on the Internet.

Sooner or later the 57 Muslim countries are going to take over free speech on the Internet.

Just one way they could do it is threaten search engines like google to put any website like frreerepublic etc that criticize Islam on a blacklist so that no one will be able to find any website that doesn’t conform to the koran (eventually). they could threaten to take away their domain name ,ip address etc.

This is just one way I one little guy can see they can do it. 57 Muslim countries have a lot of money (Saudi etc..) and engineers . I’m sure they will do this and more.

If this happens and Texas lawsuit or Trump doesn’t stop it free speech , freedom , the Internet are over. Islam will dominate the world.

Sure you can create rogue Internets etc. but that takes a lot of money ,expertise and trouble. Google and search engines is what most 99% of people want is convenience and we are busy working don’t have countless hours to devote to some rouge internet. 99% of speech wiil be controlled by dictatorships and Islam. Muslims will not tolerate any criticism of Islam and they are not beyond threatening search engines.. if your site ever criticizes Islam it will be invisible to 99% of search engines . Islam is a cult.

Most of the countries in the world are dictatorships and 57 are Islamic . we would just be 1 out of 200. 57 act as block controlled by Islam. if this happens eventually we are done


26 posted on 09/30/2016 10:15:20 AM PDT by Democrat_media (One more day till Obama hands over the internet to Muslim controlled UN. we are don)
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To: Kaslin

“Trusting authoritarian regimes”

Obama IS an authoritarian regime.


27 posted on 09/30/2016 4:15:03 PM PDT by Organic Panic (Hillary Clinton, the elderly woman's version of "I dindu nuffins.")
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To: qaz123

Term limits. I agree. Even good congress people tend to go bad after they have marinated in that toxic brew for a decade or so. Two I know about are Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchinson. They started out good and became corrupt over time. I was glad to see her step down a few years ago and make way for Cruz. Now it is past time for Corryn to go, too. The founders never intended for them to have a permanent address in DC.


28 posted on 09/30/2016 4:17:24 PM PDT by mom of young patriots
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To: Kaslin

I belive that this has already been denied by the judge. The internet is fait accompli.


29 posted on 10/06/2016 12:33:12 PM PDT by Eagles6 ( Valley Forge Redux. If not now, when? If not here, where? If not us then who?)
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