The ICANN75 Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 17-22 September. It marked the first hybrid ICANN AGM in over two years, drawing nearly 2000 participants from 112 countries and territories. A small delegation from auDA attended in person for a dynamic week of collaboration and discussion with our international multi-stakeholder internet community.
Members of the auDA delegation at ICANN75
auDA played an active role in ccNSO sessions across ICANN75. ccNSO is a body within the ICANN structure created for and by country code top level domain (ccTLD) managers. Our Specialist Policy Advisor, Annaliese Williams, was selected to moderate two ccTLD panels. The first panel discussed the identification of internet governance issues relevant to ccTLDs, the second explored new regulatory proposals to protect geographical indications on the internet, including the approach of different ccTLD managers in different regions.
The auDA delegation also attended multiple ccNSO presentations. Topics of particular interest were internationalised domain names (IDNs) and universal acceptance. IDNs are domain names in local languages and scripts, such as 例如.au. auDA has recently begun community consultation on the potential introduction of IDNs to bolster innovation and provide increased choice in .au. Universal acceptance ensures that all domain names, including IDNs and email addresses can be used by all internet-enabled applications, devices and systems.
DNS abuse
The auDA delegation observed ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) discussions on DNS abuse. As in recent ICANN meetings, DNS abuse remains a topic of high interest across the community and to auDA. Driving down DNS abuse is one of our strategic focus areas and we are proud to have DNS abuse rates of the .au that are significantly below the global average. auDA’s Chief Operating Officer, Dr Bruce Tonkin, presented on a panel designed to help government participants better understand the internet ecosystem, including the role of and their relationship with ccTLD and gTLD managers.
auDA also participated in a meeting of the ccNSO’s Domain Abuse Standing Committee (DASC), which provides a forum for open dialogue between ccTLD managers to share insights and practices for mitigating the impact of DNS abuse. To further build on this, DASC has launched a survey for ccTLD managers to systematically capture information on current DNS abuse practices to help prevent the impact of the abuse.
auDA Specialist Advisor, Policy, Annaliese Williams moderates a ccTLD panel
Geopolitical, legislative and regulatory developments
The ICANN government engagement team’s updates on geopolitical, legislative and regulatory developments were a key agenda item for auDA. Tying into our purpose of maintaining an open, free, secure and global internet, these updates provide critical insight into global actions, regulations and laws that could threaten a globally interoperable internet.
Much of this session focussed on the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU’s) Plenipotentiary Conference, running from 26 September-14 October in Bucharest, Romania. The ITU is the specialised United Nations body for information and communication technologies. A growing number of governments are showing support for the internet’s governance framework to fall under the ITU’s control, rather than being governed via the multi-stakeholder approach which auDA supports.
During the conference, several resolutions relating to the internet will be negotiated, which potentially threaten the internet’s multi-stake holder governance model. auDA’s policy team is engaging with Australian Government officials participating in the Plenipotentiary to provide input and advice on the potential impacts of any changes.
NomCom appointment
Also during ICANN75, auDA’s Chief Communications Officer, Sophie Mitchell, was appointed to ICANN’s Nominating Committee (NomCom). NomCom is an independent committee responsible for selecting key ICANN leadership positions, including some members of the board. Sophie looks forward to working with the committee in this role.
ICANN meetings are open to all interested stakeholders. You can follow ICANN on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook to stay up to date on upcoming meetings, including ICANN76, which will be held in March 2023. You can catch up on ICANN75 here: https://75.schedule.icann.org/
