Last night, Milo Yiannopoulos, senior tech editor of Breitbart News, spoke at the Ferguson Theater. Yiannopoulos’s lecture, entitled “Obama Just Handed the Internet to Monsters”, primarily focused on the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers’, or ICANN’s, change in control from the United States federal government to an organization largely independent of national governments, as reported by The Economist.
Yiannopoulos opened his lecture with a nod to his nearly-canceled appearance, which was in jeopardy due to the high security costs of his campus visit. “This was nearly the most expensive stop on my Dangerous F****t tour,” he said. “It nearly cost two Louis Vuitton handbags to speak to you this evening.”
In past publications and speeches, Yiannopoulos has described himself as “a free-speech fundamentalist.” His opening words reinforced this idea.
“We’re in a situation now where students can go to university and they come out dumber than when they went in. They are infantilized by safe-space and trigger-warning culture,” he said. “This evening, there is a safe space at Michigan University to protect the safety and emotional wellbeing of students from this dangerous f****t and a lesbian with the wrong opinions. That is insane.”
Yiannopoulos spoke of the art exhibit featuring pro-Donald Trump artists he participated in Friday night in New York City. At the exhibit, Yiannopoulos said he “was in a bathtub of pig’s blood to protest the deaths of Americans at the hands of illegal aliens, Islamic terrorists, and lax policing.”
Yiannopoulos touched on a number of other topics, including the presidential debate Sunday night. “Trump is now a changed, reformed man of course,” he said. “But in his wilder days, he might describe what happened last night as a brutal schlonging.”
Yiannopoulos spent the last half of his talk on to the transfer of ICANN from U.S. control to “the control of… well… No one is quite sure yet.” He called this transfer of control unconstitutional, stating President Obama’s giveaway of ICANN “might not even be constitutional, but then again, that’s never stopped him before, has it?”
The Breitbart Editor focused primarily on the changes he believes the internet will undergo with the new control. According to Yiannopoulos, China, Russia, “countries like Turkey,” and Saudi Arabia will now have a greater say in the interne is governed. He argues because of these countries’ past censorship practices, the Internet will lose any semblance of free speech.
“In the words of one of my Breitbart colleagues, we are giving up control of the internet so that Turkey has as much say as America,” he said. “We are doing that because Obama and friends thinks it is noble, that it is right to give all countries, no matter how despotic, a voice in managing the Internet.”
Yiannopoulos ended his formal speech with a call to action, saying that Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump is the solution to his perceived issues with free speech.
“It’s up to daddy [Trump], and to all of us, to fix this,” he said.
Yiannopoulos stayed for a limited question and answer portion after his main speech. After, he promised to take questions from other members of the audience in another, undisclosed location.
