
Instead,
Mr. Clinton, appearing on a panel discussion at a recent Clinton Global
Initiative event, defended U.S. 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 U.S. control
that keeps other governments at bay, allowing stakeholders like
engineers and private companies to operate an open Internet.
"A lot of people who have been trying to
take this authority away from the U.S. want to do it for the sole
purpose of cracking down on Internet freedom and limiting it and having
governments protect their backsides instead of empower their people."
Mr.
Clinton asked Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia: "Are you at all
worried that if we give up this domain jurisdiction that we have had for
all these years that we will lose Internet freedom?"
"I'm
very worried about it," Mr. Wales answered. People outside the U.S.
often say to him, "Oh, it's terrible. Why should the U.S. have this
special power?" His reply: "There is the First Amendment in the U.S.,
and there is a culture of free expression."
He
recalled being told on Icann panels to be more understanding of
differences in cultures. "I have respect for local cultures, but banning
parts of Wikipedia is not a local cultural variation that we should
embrace and accept. That's a human-rights violation."
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