Big Brother is Watching--Part 1: The Internet

My website went down last night.  No, this was not an ordinary server crash.  Nor was it a 404 error or even at "Sorry, we can't find this webpage" error.  The website was gone--as the ServePro commercial says, "Like it never even happened."

I had been on my website in the morning so I know that the disappearing act took place sometime between 8:45 AM and 7:00 PM.  My emails are tied to my domain name, so they went down too with a notice that the Domain Name was unavailable.

Since I know that my domain name is pre-paid and registered for another several years, I was not really concerned.  AT&T manages my domain name and my webhosting, so I assumed that they might be conducting some kind of general maintenance and that everything would come back up on its own.  But when I got up this morning with still no website I knew there must be a bigger issue.

Five phone calls and three emails later, I learned that ICANN had suspended my domain name.  ICANN is the International Committee for Assigned Names and Numbers.  ICANN has managed the Internet since October 1, 2016.  Assignment of domain names and registrations now happens on their watch.  Although Obama got the blame for the transition, the seeds of ICANN were planted in the Clinton Administration in 1998.  The Clinton, Bush and Obama Administrations all made the determination that global governance of the Internet was the best way to protect and manage it.  In September of 2016, CBS News quoted Michael Chertoff, former Homeland Security Chief under both Bush and Obama, on the subject of surrendering Internet governance to ICANN, “If we don’t make a transition to a more global form of governance, many people will say, ‘Look, this is a U.S tool, and we’re going to make our own Internet. We have to realize that even though we know our motives are good motives, there are people who will argue that if we don’t give it up that we have bad motives. To maintain credibility we have to go through this process.”

Before the transition, many conservatives were worried about ICANN shutting down sites they don't like--about regulating and controlling speech and thought. Obama supporters insisted that they were just being paranoid and silly.  After the transition life seemed to go on as before and most of us forgot about ICANN.

So what does any of this have to do with my website?  I learned this morning that ICANN is now sending a yearly email to all domain owners to make sure that they are still active and want to remain registered.  The email is sent to the email on file with the webhost--which is typically a different email than the host provides.  In my case ICANN sent an email to an email address I have not checked in almost 10 years.  When the email does not get a response within 15 days, ICANN suspends the domain until the party to whom it is registered confirms it.  This annual check-up does not take into consideration that the domain name may have been paid in advance for a certain period of time and that the owner may be accessing it daily. 

After four confirmation emails and a text message confirming that I am still using the domain, I was able to get my website back up.  And I confirmed with AT&T that I can change the email in their system so that ICANN can reach me next year so that I don't have to go through this again.  But the experience has shown me how quickly this "global governing body" can flip a switch and cut off anyone's website or email and make it disappear without a trace--as if it had never been there. 

That's a scary thought, and it portends a scary future for all of us if ICANN ever does decide to regulate content and not just domain names and numbers.

Alexandra Swann's novel W: The Set, incorporates her novels The Planner and The Chosen which tell the story of  an out-of-control, environmentally-driven federal government implementing Agenda 21 and NDAA.  The set is available on Kindle. For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net.