The U.S. Government’s decision to give up control over the DNS root zone became the target of criticism by U.S. right-wing and conservative politicians. For instance, the former Alaska governor and candidate for the Republican vice-presidential nomination Sarah Palin said that “surrendering control of the Internet is a colossal foreign policy error with long term negative repercussions for freedom.”
A famous media manager and businessman Louis Gordon Crovitz, writing in the Wall Street Journal, quoted ICANN Founding Chair Esther Dyson saying: “In the end, I’d rather pay a spurious tax to people who want my money than see [ICANN] controlled by entities who want my silence.” Dyson also believes that the transition of the U.S. stewardship of the domain and address space to the UN is “a fate worse than death” for the Internet. However, this outcome is unlikely as the U.S. Government is not interested in transitioning its control functions over the DNS root zone to the UN.
Crovitz also says that “the alternative to control over the Internet by the U.S. is not the elimination of any government involvement. It is, rather, the involvement of many other governments, some authoritarian, at the expense of the U.S.”
The affluence of similar opinions brought U.S. Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Lawrence Strickling to make some clarifications. He claimed that the U.S. would continue its current stewardship role until the Internet community comes up with a plan for the transition of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s functions to a new organization. Any transition plan must meet the conditions of supporting the multistakeholder process and protecting the security, stability and resiliency of the Internet. Strickling emphasized that the U.S. “will not accept a proposal that replaces NTIA's role with a government-led or an inter-governmental solution.” He also assured that the U.S. would retain some control over the Internet through its role on ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee and participation in other international platforms including the Internet Governance Forum.
