[At-Large] DomainIncite : Is this why WhatsApp hates some TLDs but not others?

[Evan Leibovitch]

On Thu, Sep 14, 2023 at 3:54 PM Karl Auerbach via At-Large <
at-large at atlarge-lists.icann.org> wrote:

Democracy Versus Stakeholderism
>
> https://www.cavebear.com/cavebear-blog/stakeholder_sock_puppet/
>
There are many forms of stakeholderism. Some, like Netmundial's, have
potential to be sustainable and adaptable for other environments. Other
models, developed in standards-making environments, provide examples as
diverse as the IETF's  and ISO's.

And then there's ICANN's inmates-running-the-asylum model, by far worst of
the bunch, in numerous ways explicitly designed to serve industry at the
expense of the public interest. For all of its A&T noise the world has seen
that ICANN's only real external accountability is to the California
Attorney-General.

It is no coincidence that for most international treaties, the ICANN script
is flipped; it is governments and public-interest groups who set the agenda
while industry advises. Without the backing of such treaties, ICANN's
decisions survive only because of governmental tolerance rather than
validation.  And as a result of said lack of validation, we have issues
arise such as we have in this thread: "ICANN-approved" gTLDs which are
ignored by significant swaths of the Internet (and without anyone realizing
it for YEARS).

How can anyone be surprised? It is notable that even this shocking news was
revealed by an industry-insider website and has received no mainstream
coverage of which I'm aware. Nobody outside the ICANN bubble cares.

And this is ICANN at peak respect. As globalization declines, ICANN's  lack
of treaty backing is going to prove even more costly to international
connectivity as time passes. It's going to get worse, not better.

- Evan
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