Arizona joins lawsuit saying US giving up control of Internet

PHOENIX — Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich is asking a federal judge to block or delay Sunday’s proposed handover by the federal government of the agency in charge of coordinating internet names and addresses.

The lawsuit filed late Wednesday comes just days before the Commerce Department and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration are slated to turn over the oversight of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a little-known organization responsible for assigning internet domain names and addresses.

Brnovich, in his lawsuit joined by the attorneys general from Texas, Nevada and Oklahoma, said the change could lead to the effective censorship of some internet voices that foreign governments, who would now be involved, do not want people to find.

“We don’t know if this may mean that governments or private entities that may not share our values when it comes to the First Amendment and free speech are going to be as willing to protect the freedom that we all have in the internet and the certainty and predictability we get when we’re on the internet,” he said.

Brnovich acknowledged that ICANN cannot block content. But he said it could change a web address or make it invisible, essentially censoring the content because the site would be impossible to find.

The Republican attorney general also said he’s more comfortable with having U.S. versus international oversight.

“If you think the U.N. is doing a good job in peacekeeping throughout the world, if you think the International Olympic Committee (does a good job) in the way that it runs and awards Olympic games, then you probably don’t have any problems or issues with this occurring,” he said.

U.S. District Court Judge George Hanks Jr. set a hearing for Friday in Texas.

ICANN assures that each website has its own unique multi-digit address. As the internet developed, it also allowed for unique domain names so someone could simply type “www.azgovernor.gov” to get to Gov. Doug Ducey’s web page, for example, instead of having to remember “159.87.179.140,” one of the addresses ICANN assigned the state.

It also decides on allowable suffixes for domain names, like .com for commercial sites, .gov for government agencies, and .mil for the U.S. military.

While ICANN has operated under contract with the federal government, that is set to expire at the end of Saturday. At that point, control would go to an international consortium of business, public interest groups and governments.

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Congress has debated the advisability of the U.S. government losing control but hasn’t moved to stop the handover. The issue has become political, with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump wading in against the transfer.

Now, with time running out, Brnovich is making a federal case of it. He acknowledged that the attorneys general have known for months about the handover plans, but said they were hoping Congress would stop it.

Censorship possibilities aside, he said the changeover could lead to mischief.

For example, Brnovich said, those going to a site with a .gov address can be assured that is a federal, state or local government agency, but an ICANN unrestrained by U.S. oversight could change that.

Chris Mondini, vice president for global stakeholder engagement at ICANN, dismissed that possibility. “The specific address names ... are protected through an agreement for use by the United States government,” he said.

Mondini said he could not speak about the merits of the lawsuit, pointing out that ICANN is not even a defendant in the case. Neither the Commerce Department nor the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which are defendants, responded to requests for comment.

But Mondini said the fears of participants corrupting the system ignore two basic facts.

First, the internet is not a single entity but essentially various networks interacting with each other. That’s part of the need for a coordinated address system.

Second, Mondini said, the whole thing is “purely voluntary and trust based.”

“If ever other parties who run big networks became dissatisfied with ICANN’s performance, began to disagree with how ICANN is doing its job, they could actually start their own alternative addressing system and get other networks to sign up to that,” he said.