U.S. Senator Ron Wyden has reiterated concerns about the government’s domain name seizure policy.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently confirmed plans to continue seizing domain names suspected of aiding copyright violations. John Morton, ICE director, said the Operation In Our Sites initiative would continue through 2011 and beyond.
But Senator Wyden believes this position contradicts the State Department’s stance on Internet freedom, reports Tech Dirt.
He noted that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been funding attempts to prevent online censorship by foreign regimes, and claimed that ICE is pulling in a different direction.
“Hopefully, her views will prevail, and not the views of ICE,” Senator Wyden said.
He claimed that domain name seizures send out the wrong message to foreign regimes, and potentially give them the green light to pursue such policies.