Strickling Responds to WSJ's Crovitz Over IANA Transition

NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling countered Wall Street Journal columnist Gordon Crovitz’s Dec. 1 article that called for the U.S. to retain control of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority contract. “Crovitz’s criticism is rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of the U.S. role in the DNS [domain name system]. No one entity controls the Internet,” Strickling said Sunday in the WSJ. Strickling said he took issue with Crovitz’s “continued mischaracterization that there is a September deadline for this transition.” "NTIA’s current contract with Icann, which operates technical functions related to the DNS, expires on Sept. 30, 2015, but we have repeatedly stated that if the transition plan is not ready by then, we can extend the contract,” he said. “The Obama administration is so uncomfortable with American exceptionalism that it violated the cardinal rule of good government: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Crovitz said last week.