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12/31/2005 Archived Entry: "Internet censorship through ICANN"

Like many others, I've had grave doubts about turning control over the Internet to the U.N. Alas, it seems that ICANN -- the U.S. corporation that currently does the job -- is determined to be at least as totalitarian as the U.N. The U.S. is now interfering with the assignment of country-code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs, like .ca and .uk) to ensure that the "right" people have control...and the "right" views get expressed. According to The Register, this means

If a company running a country code top-level domain refuses to agree to hand over any information or data held by it to the government, either legally, illegally or extra-legally, secretly or not, the government can simply replace the company with a government-run agency. If it refuses to shut down a website, or to redirect it elsewhere, the government can simply replace it with a government-run agency.