Along Came a Spider

By Katie Kieffer Eight furry legs appeared and Congress let out a screamquickly surrendering the Internet to the United Nations. Last week Congress closed shop for a six-week recess without stopping the Internet from slipping into the hands of a global consortium aligned with the United Nations. Our story begins in 1998 when the organization of the Internets address book" of domain names (such as Townhall.com) as well as related technology and structure was assigned to a California nonprofit called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The U.S. Department of Commerce has had oversight of ICANN since 1998. Americas special role in overseeing the Internet may sound oddsince the Internet is the worldwide webbut the truth is that the Internet was invented primarily by American ingenuity. Al Gore pretended to invent the Internet. A private American citizen named Bill Joy actually invented the supporting code for the Internet relays Malcolm Gladwell in his bestselling book Outliers. As a teenager Joy would play on" the gigantic computers at the University of Michigans Computer Center. The knowledge he gained while hacking the University of Michigans computers ultimately went on to benefit society in a very big way. The Internet soon became a haven for free speech. A place where anyoneon virtually any budgetcould share their views or discoveries with the world. Unfortunately however pressure began mounting in the late 2000s for global Internet oversight. After Edward Snowden released evidence of the United States spying on global governments more countries began to complain about ICANNs reporting structure. The usual suspect the United Nations was proposed to replace the United States in overseeing ICANN. Instead of reforming Americas global reputation President Obama made the wild claim that anyone whoby accident curiosity or even for valid research purposesvisits an ISIL website" should potentially be denied the right to bear arms. Ive got people who we know have been on ISIL websites living here in the United States U.S. citizens and were allowed to put them on the no-fly list when it comes to airlines but because of the National Rifle Association I cannot prohibit those people from buying a gun. This is somebody who is a known ISIL sympathizer." On Saturday Oct. 1 the U.S. Department of Commerces contract to oversee ICANN quietly expired. ICANN immediately and joyfully announced on its website that it would now be overseen by a global multistakeholder community." (If you think that sounds a lot like the U.N.youre rightthe global multistakeholder community is aligned with the UN.) Under the new arrangement the United States will have one seat at a 164-member global table that may include representatives from anti-free speech countries like Russia and China. Catching Bugs in the Web Bank robberies are growing more infrequent as criminals switch to hacking financial and personal data online to make a quick and quiet dollar. Indeed in August Apple began offering $200000 bug bounties" to researchers who identify unknown bugs in its software. Yahoo! also announced that a state-sponsored" hack potentially from China succeeded in compromising 500 million accounts. Now more than ever America needs strong cyber security. The Democratic Partyunder the leadership of President Obamaoversaw a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) that hired some 73 employees on terrorist watch lists. Obamas administration also failed to encrypt the personal data for 21.5 million Americans now under the ownership of Chinese hackers. And Obamas Homeland Security Department granted U.S. citizenship to almost 900 individuals who had been ordered to be deported. Dont freeze in fear. Channel your frustration into productivity at the polls next month. Hillary Clinton publicly endorses a cyber security policy that would treat American citizens in the same way the Chinese government treats its citizens. By pretending law-abiding citizens are more dangerous than known terroristsand by barring free speech. Freedom of speech" Hillary quipped is no defense against federal snoops. Donald Trump in contrast supported the recent effort of Republicans in Congressincluding Sen. Ted Cruzwho tried to extend United States oversight of ICANN. Trumps National Policy Director Steven Miller said: Internet freedom is now at risk with the Presidents intent to cede control to international interests including countries like China and Russia which have a long track record of trying to impose online censorship. Congress needs to act or Internet freedom will be lost for good." Unfortunately too many congressional Republicans sniffed their noses at Cruzs crusadepreferring to side with big spending pretty boy Paul Ryan and give Obama everything for which he asked. Hillary is a woman who deleted 31830 emails that could have contained classified material she wrongfully sent over an insecure connection while Secretary of State. She called them personal"and got away with it. She also surely agrees with her ally Obama that incompetent persons like themselves should be trusted with a hand on the button" whereas a law-abiding citizen who accidently or for legitimate research finds themselves on an ISIL website should be permanently barred from owning a gun. Stay away from the spider that handed the worldwide web to the U.N.and the spiderspinning a new web to ensnare your firearm.