By: Dr. Milton Mueller, Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Public Policy
September 15, 2015 – Full Article as .PDF
1. The IANA Transition
On March 14, 2014, the United States government announced its intention to end its direct role in overseeing the Internet’s Domain Name System (DNS) and IP address allocation. Those aspects of global Internet coordination, […]
Internet Infrastructure & IP Censorship
By David G. Post – August 1, 2015
Full Article as .PDF
Many scholars and other observers of developments in Internet governance, law, and policy have commented upon an unusual and important phenomenon that has become more widespread in recent years: using control over access to critical portions of the Internet’s technical infrastructure […]
ICANN Accountability Deficits Revealed in .AFRICA Panel Ruling
By Robin D. Gross – 16 July 2015
Full Article as .PDF
“Fortress ICANN” No Longer Able to Shield Itself from Accountability
In an important test of ICANN’s primary accountability mechanism, its Independent Review Process (IRP), the organization has been handed a stinging blow over its mishandling of the bid for […]
ICANN has lost an important case in its Independent Review Panel (IRP) process in the .Africa new domain case and its implications for other new domains are huge.
ICANN lost mainly for its unfair treatment to new generic top-level domain applicants and for providing undue deference to advice from the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), which does […]
Freedom of expression on the Internet is at risk from ICANN’s recent decision to prohibit anyone but one specific type of doctor from using the word within the .doctor new gTLD space. Last month, ICANN’s New GTLD Program Committee decided that only “medical practitioners” would be allowed to register a domain in the .doctor name space.
ICANN’s […]
Amending ICANN's existing corporate bylaws to create a community veto process and a board recall mechanism could empower the ICANN community to over-see the direction of ICANN's board of directors. These bylaws revisions would greatly aid in the organization's effort to be accountable to the community it serves without requiring a radical re-organization of ICANN's legal structure.
Ninth Annual Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum – Istanbul, Turkey
“Connecting Continents for Enhanced Multi-Stakeholder Governance”
September 3, 2014
ICANN Accountability In A Multi-Stakeholder Governance Regime
>> ROBIN GROSS: Hello everyone and welcome. My name is Robin Gross with IP Justice. I’m the organizer of this panel on ICANN accountability. ICANN’s bylaws state that it operates in the […]
Stand Up For Internet Freedom! Send a comment to ICANN to express your concern about the organization's radical proposal to hand control of the board of the directors over to governments. The Internet Needs You to Act Today!
This draconian proposal to change ICANN's bylaws would fundamentally transform ICANN away from being a "bottom-up" and "private-sector-led" organization and into a governmental regulatory agency by changing the GAC's role from "advisory" into "primary decision maker" by essentially creating a "governmental veto" on all key organizational decisions. This would mark a truly significant change in the overall power structure at ICANN that would dramatically empower national governments (some democratic, some authoritarian) over the management of critical Internet resources at the expense of those who participate in the bottom-up policy development process...
Q1. Why wasn’t the community involved in the drafting of the staff plan?
Q2. How does ICANN intend to handle the inherent conflict of interest with developing its own accountability plan?
Q3. Why didn’t ICANN invite proposals from the community?
Q4. Why is there no public comment period on staff’s plan?
Q5. What is the rationale for so many non-stakeholder decision […]