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Ted Cruz Attacks President Obama’s ‘Internet Giveaway’: GOP Senator Claims Move Will Kill Free Speech

By Josh Moorcroft
Published on: 20:55 PST, Sep 8, 2016

Republican senator Ted Cruz has launched a scathing attack on President Obama over what the GOP is calling an “internet giveaway”. Cruz has joined forces with other prominent Republicans in order to fight White House plans to give up its oversight of the internet. The Obama administration is currently trying to lobby support from leading tech and telecom industry figures in order to justify plans to transfer control of the internet to an international body.

However, according to Politico, the GOP has consistently claimed that such a move could allow authoritarian countries such as China and Russia to make a power grab for ICANN, the nonprofit that manages the entire internet’s domain name system. The White House has stated that they plan to make the transition on October 1 when the United States will relinquish control of ICANN to the United Nations. However, Ted Cruz and other leading GOP figures don’t plan to let the country give up control of the body without a fight.

Cruz took to the Senate floor in order to voice his opposition to President Obama’s plans, saying, “I rise today to discuss the significant, irreparable damage this proposed internet giveaway could wreak not only on our nation but on free speech across the world,” before laying out his plans to fight the move.

Ever since those aforementioned plans were announced by President Obama, the Republican party has been consistently opposed to the idea. Many leading GOP figures claim that if the United States loosens its control over ICANN, it would allow for the likes of China and Russia to impose stricter internet censorship, not only in their own countries but across the globe. With that in mind, Congress has passed a number of provisions in order to prevent the agency from relinquishing its responsibility for the domain name functions.

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As part of his campaign against the White House’s plans according to UPROXX, Cruz has launched a website that displays an ominous warning and a countdown “until Obama gives away the internet”. Similarly, Cruz has launched an attack ad warning of the dangers the move would pose for internet freedom and plans to dedicate the entire month of September to campaigning against the President. With that in mind, he’s scheduled a hearing of the Senate Judiciary oversight subcommittee he chairs next week, saying he’ll investigate possible dangers of the move.

Ted Cruz has served as the junior United States Senator from Texas since 2013 but is perhaps best known as a candidate for the Republican nomination for President of the United States earlier this year. Cruz was ultimately beaten by controversial nominee Donald Trump, although he was the last remaining candidate running against Trump.

Cruz has managed to rally a fairly large amount of opposition to Obama’s plans over recent days, with Senator Marco Rubio, also a candidate for the Republican nomination, coming out to attack President Obama’s plans, albeit a little softer than Cruz. Rubio has called for the transition to be delayed due to ongoing problems with the proposal. Rubio and a number of other senior Republican senators recently wrote to the NTIA, claiming the transition plan wasn’t ready and urging for an extension of the United States’ contract with ICANN.

As the battle to become the next President of the United States comes to a head, outgoing President Barack Obama will continue his fight with Senate Republicans in order to relinquish control of the internet’s governing body ICANN.

[Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images]

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