Google backs Obama’s internet transition plan

Google is throwing its support behind the Obama administration’s controversial plans to hand over management of the internet domain name system.

In a blogpost Monday, the Mountain View-based tech behemoth called the Obama administration’s proposed transition of Internet Assigned Names Authority (IANA) from U.S. oversight to an international governing authority an “important step to protect the Internet for generations to come.”

{mosads}Google offered three arguments for its stance: The transition will put the internet in the hands of innovators; protect the internet from “those who want to break it into pieces”; and honor the U.S. government’s promise when the internet was created that it “be governed by everyone with a stake in its continued growth.”

Critics, though, have argued that handing off oversight would put the internet under the control of countries like Russia, China and Iran, which would be represented in the international authority that includes 162 countries and entities.

Supporters though say those worries are overblown and say the greater threat is that autocratic countries get fed up with U.S. management and create their own splintered internet nodes.

Google previously supported the measure in a letter also signed by Facebook, Twitter and Amazon, urging top lawmakers to not block the proposal. But Monday’s blog post is the first time its taken expressed individual support.

The transition is set to occur at the end of the week despite the opposition of some Republican lawmakers.

Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) led a charge against the White House proposal, calling for a policy rider delaying the transition to be included in a continuing resolution to fund the government.

But no such measure was included in the Senate funding bill unveiled last week.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said that it was left off in favor of a “clean continuing resolution.”