How Donald Trump’s Internet policy would benefit Russia

The Switch analysis



How Donald Trump’s Internet policy would benefit Russia

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/09/23/how-donald-trumps-internet-policy-would-benefit-russia/


By Brian Fung September 23 at 10:44 AM

(AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Thorough reporting by many journalists, at The Post and elsewhere, have uncovered extensive ties between Donald Trump on the one hand and Russia on the other. Trump's own statements make little secret of his personal admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he has praised for having "great control over his country." And Trump seemed to have openly solicited Russian hacking of the U.S. election, to the point that critics have accused him of treason.

So it may seem surprising to hear Trump suddenly change his tone on Russia this week over an obscure battle on Internet policy. Taking a swipe at Russia's support for Internet censorship, a Trump policy adviser warned Wednesday of giving the Kremlin too much say in how the Internet should be governed. The statement reads like a snub to Putin — that is, until you realize that Trump's own policy would wind up giving the Russian leader precisely what he wants.

Let's start with the policy itself. What Trump opposes is the decision by the U.S. government to officially let an international non-profit manage the Internet's domain name system, or the DNS. The DNS is what helps computers understand what you mean when you type in an address like google.com. And this non-profit organization, known as ICANN, has already been managing the DNS for decades. This organization is made up of businesses, public interest groups, and yes, governments like the United States's, China's and Russia's.
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In short, policy experts are coming out of the woodwork to say that Cruz and Trump are wrong. Their argument earned them three Pinocchios from my colleague Glenn Kessler, who writes The Washington Post's Fact Checker column.

Beyond its incorrectness, Trump's preferred policy — stopping the transition — would ironically wind up helping Putin rather than undermining him, critics say...................