If you’ve got about 3 hours to spare you can watch the hearing about the IANA transition that was held earlier today.
The witnesses’ written testimony can be accessed here.
Here’s the full video of the hearing, which is in two parts:
It’s worth watching, with some of the highlights in the first part being Senator Cruz alleging that the NTIA staff broke the law and him asking the CEO of ICANN, Göran Marby, if he thought China was “the” enemy of the internet. Mr Marby did not reply directly to the question obviously, but why anyone would even consider asking such a question of someone in Marby’s position is beyond me.
So what now?
It’s clear from the testimony and the tone of some of the exchanges in today’s hearing that there are opponents to the IANA transition. Whether or not there are enough of them and they have enough power in Congress to block the IANA transition is another matter and not one that I’d be willing to “call” at this stage. I have, however, a strong suspicion that many people on the ICANN side underestimated how much time, energy and effort Senator Cruz and his fellow travellers would put into this. Whether they’re a vocal minority or something more should become clear in the next couple of weeks.
As Cruz has noted, the clock is ticking..
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