The 79th meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN79), was held from 2-7 March in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
There was plenty of activity and global collaboration, and to hear insights from the event, auDA hosted a readout webinar on 13 March with several key members of the ICANN community.
Annaliese Williams, auDA Specialist Policy Adviser and a committee chair in the Country Code Name Supporting Organization (ccNSO), hosted the panel, which featured:
- Ian Sheldon, Australian Government, reporting from the Government Advisory Committee (GAC)
- Cheryl Langdon-Orr, At-Large community, reporting from the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC)
- Ram Mohan, Identity Digital, reporting from Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC)
- Thomas Rickert, Association of the Internet Industry (eco.de), reporting from the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO).
Below were our key takeaways.
Government Advisory Committee
As Ian Sheldon reported, at ICANN79 the GAC made significant headway in finalising a strategic plan designed to articulate the GAC's overarching priorities, including how the GAC can proactively help ICANN consider matters from the governmental lens. The GAC hopes to finalise its strategic plan before the next ICANN meeting in June.
The GAC also looked at issues related to public interest commitments in the generic top level domains (gTLDs) environment. Ian noted there’s a general reluctance from the GAC to amend ICANN bylaws regarding public interest commitments – with a particular concern about what should and shouldn’t constitute content moderation. Broader consultation with other constituencies about these topics was useful as the GAC considers its position.
The GAC also experimented by hosting an open mic listening session, where ICANN participants from any area could ask questions and open discussions. Ian highlighted it was a great opportunity to hear outside perspectives on the GAC’s work, and it’s a format they’ll seek to fine tune for future meetings.
During the ICANN meeting, the GAC also discussed the importance of transparency in policy development processes. “[It] was a very important topic for the GAC as it strikes to the very core of the multi-stakeholder driven policy process and it's something the GAC believes should apply to all policy development processes that occur at ICANN,” Ian explained.
At-Large Advisory Committee
Cheryl Langdon-Orr joined us to give an update on the work of ICANN’s At Large community, which represents the best interests of internet end users – those who are connected to the internet, as well as those who are yet to be connected.
The ALAC organised two plenary sessions during ICANN79. The first explored the role of internet governance in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which is an ongoing conversation for the ICANN community. The second session considered building trust on the internet through registrant verification, which according to Cheryl, has been a “hot topic” since ICANN’s beginning. Who registrants are and how members of the public find out who they are continues to be a focus, not just for end users but for parties at all levels.
The ALAC is also interested in the processes for future rounds of new gTLDs, which as Cheryl articulated, “should allow us to have greater diversity and [support] improved access for underserved regions.”
Security and Stability Advisory Committee
Ram Mohan highlighted a major challenge of domain name collisions – where two Top Level Domains (TLDs) are assigned, one in the public space and one in the internal networks of companies or organisations.
Name collisions are becoming more common and pose a consistent threat to DNS security and stability. In response, the SSAC has proposed a framework that includes integrated risk assessment, enhanced data collection and multiple assessment methods. Data collection was a key point of discussion on the matter, including when to collect data in the evaluation process and who is responsible. SSAC strongly suggested that data should be collected at the start of a TLD application process to catch any potential problems early, and that ICANN ought to be responsible for collection and mitigating privacy risks.
Ram also invited industry peers, academics and experts to get involved with SSAC to support the work of the committee. “We really need to rejuvenate the membership of SSAC, [we] currently have no members from Latin America, from Africa, very few from Asia Pacific. Very few with academic and research backgrounds, 31 men to four women … so we have an open call for bringing in new members.”
Generic Names Supporting Organization
Thomas Rickert outlined work the GNSO has been involved in, including policy recommendations for the next round of gTLD applications. Like the ALAC, the GNSO was focussed on revisions to the Applicant Guidebook, which was out for public comment. In particular, the GNSO was busy working on amendments and clarifications to the Guidebook in the hope of seeing all elements accepted when submitted to the ICANN Board.
Another GNSO focus was the registration data request system (RDRS) – a pilot program aimed at improving privacy of registration data. Previously, registration data was published publicly without restriction leading to various issues. The RDRS allows relevant parties – such as law enforcement or trade mark owners – to request non-public registration data. The program continues to be trialled, however, as Thomas explained, if successful, the RDRS will be a powerful resource to disclose non-public data in compliance with a host of privacy laws globally.
Thomas also spoke about the European Union’s NIS2 directive, which deals with network and information security. NIS2, which is due to be transposed into the laws of all member states by October 2024, includes an article setting out requirements for registries and registrars related to registration data.
While some believe ICANN should update its policies in line with NIS2, Thomas cautioned ICANN against responding to individual national or regional regulations and highlighted the importance of ICANN’s multi-stakeholder processes. “ICANN has a superpower … and that is [its] consensus policies,” he said.
Country Code Name Supporting Organization
For Annaliese Williams, one of the most interesting parts of this ICANN meeting was the session in the ccNSO that explored possible gaps in the global policies that define how ICANN provides services to country code TLD (ccTLD) managers. ccTLD policies differ from each other and, in many cases, have been in place since before ICANN was created. The session explored the interactions of the global policies and the national approaches of various ccTLDs.
This included consideration of hypothetical scenarios. One such scenario included a fictional country with a ccTLD managed by an individual, where that individual informed the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) that they wanted to retire, or that person died without making any plans for the future management of the ccTLD. The session was inspired by a real-life case and discussed what IANA would, could or should do in these cases. The discussions will continue at ICANN80 in Rwanda in June.
Annaliese also discussed a ccNSO session on internet fragmentation, organised by the ccNSO Internet Governance Liaison Committee (IGLC), which she chairs. The session explored internet fragmentation from the perspectives of ccTLD managers from .za (South Africa) and .br (Brazil), and the African TLD organisation. It also featured speakers from ICANN’s government engagement team and one of the co-facilitators of the Internet Governance Forum’s Policy Network on Internet Fragmentation. The purpose of the IGLC is to encourage and facilitate the engagement of ccTLD managers in internet governance processes and discussions, including those taking place outside of ICANN, such as within the United Nations system.
You can read about auDA’s work on internet governance in our Internet Governance Roadmap.
Watch the full webinar to learn more, and keep an eye out for our next auDA event.
To learn more about ICANN79, the schedule and recordings of all public sessions are available on the ICANN79 website.
