[EURO-Discuss] Announcement on IANA Stewardship Transition (Rinalia Abdul Rahim)

Tue Oct 4 18:58:36 UTC 2016

Good evening:

Allow me a few comments on this discussion. I am aware of the nature of Eberhard's concerns and have thought about them, over the years.
indeed, the NTIA authority over (a specific part of) ICANN Governance caused an irritating a-symmetry in the relationships among countries and stakeholders.
However, this was tolerated in practice precisely because the diplomatic back-stop existed. Also experience confirmed that NTIA exercised their authority in an acceptable manner.

Notwithstanding, the long-standing EU position has been that unilateral US control over the Internet Root was inappropriate and should be relinquished.

Now, if we jump twenty years to the decision last Friday night, we hit Eberhard's three criticisms:

> 	lack of transparency, 

Here I do not agree. There is plenty of transparency, but it is not very well organised and impenetrable to newcomers. Examples:

-	IANA: the legal texts (contracts, agreements and formal letters) between ICANN, the PTI, the IETF Trust and the CCG, run to about 70 pages. How many of us have read them all?

-	Mailing Lists: I was recently criticised for not having read a document posted for public comment one fine day last August. When I checked my inbox I found that on that particular day I had received 48 messages from the CWG List alone. Only a fraction of E-Mail traffic is really a priority. But which fraction?

>	 lack of democracy 

Well, not really: the ICANN system is less difficult to penetrate and influence than many 'democratic' national institutions. 
As a global institution ICANN is far more democratic than most of the other international fora.

However, democracy only works credibly if there is a high level of participation. Currently, unless all stakeholders (SO/ACs among others) participate, then power will drift to the 'power of the pen' and to those few highly motivated individuals who endeavour, no doubt with the best of intentions, to design the future system to their own satisfaction.
Added to which the substantial economic turnover that is taking place within the domain name system is giving rise to perverse incentives. 

In view of the limited governmental power over public policy in ICANN, it is becoming quite important that the non-commercial participants and representatives of users' interests act effectively to ensure that decisions are taken democratically and in the public interest. Otherwise the multistakeholder system of governance could easily drift, by default, into an unacceptable level of collusion among a few economic interests.

> 	and a lack of accountability

Most of the work to date in CCWG has been about strengthening the accountability of ICANN (particularly the Board) to the community (now known as the Empowered Community - EC).
So far so good, if sometimes over the top. But the next accountability issue is different. The transition has created a large handful of new entities with their own membership and structure, to implement inter alia the accountability obtained by the Enhanced Community. Thus there is an PTI Board, there are Co Chairs and Representatives in the CCG, there will be delegates from the SO/ACs to the EC etc. 

In the WS2 subgroup on SO/AC accountability, I have stressed that the principal issue today, after the transition, is the accountability of those delegates and representatives in each of the new entities to their 'home' constituency and to the Internet community as a whole.

So, Eberhard, I can follow you half the way but not all the way. Furthermore, 'diplomatic pressure' is not always well informed or even benign.

Regards

CW

On 04 Oct 2016, at 12:35, Eberhard Blocher <director at ourtanzania.com> wrote:

> Hello Remo, Roberto and all,
> 
> please excuse the perceived lack of explanation. I have personally been to quite a few ICANN meetings, to IGF and (German language) DomainPulse, and similar meetings for more than 10 years, so this is the background of the observation I made. I really thought what I wrote was quite clear, but apparently, judging from what you are writing, this doesn't seem to be the case.
> 
> The IANA Stewardship Transition has led to IANA administration being de-politicized, and this, to me, is a big step in the wrong direction.
> 
> This year in February, large parts of our communitiy met in Lausanne, Switzerland, for the annual DomainPulse conference. At that meeting, Thomas Rickert, who is one of the most important people working in the CCWG, described the IANA Stewardship Transition in great detail, since most of it had been thoroughly discussed and was basically agreed on, at the time. I don't think there have been any major changes in recent months. Thomas made it quite clear that what the CCWG had been creating, for ICANN, was a model "United Nations" or a model "country", with all the basic elements in place: Executive, legal and judicial branches. Checks and balances were put in place, even the possibility for the ICANN board to be forced to step down if they should abuse the power bestowed upon them. However, what the CCWG did create was just a "model" country, not the real thing.
> 
> So basically, in my opinion, there is a lack of transparency, a lack of democracy and a lack of accountability in this ICANN multi-stakeholder modell, which is supposed to govern IANA in future.
> 
> Just consider what was there before, i.e. up to September 30th. The DoC, i.e. NTIA, had all the power. What would have happened if they had abused this power, for example, deleting a TLD from the root? Something which never happened, of course, but it could have happened. Well, in that case, diplomatic pressure could have been put upon the US Government. For example, imagine the NTIA deleting the .DE zone from the root. In that case, the American Ambassodor to Germany could have been summoned to report to the German Government, and Lawrence E. Strickling would certainly have had to justify his actions. This is a huge amount of power that the German Government, or any government affected, could have applied.
> 
> Now imagine what would happen in future if ICANN decided to delete any zone from the root. All that would remain to be done would be sending a letter to Göran Marby, or to Steve Crocker. And then, you would have to sit back and hope and pray that one of them will answer the letter of complaint. There is no way any foreign government, or indeed anyone who is not an American citizen, could apply any direct power to Mr Marby or Mr Crocker. ICANN is a private sector company incorporated in California. There is nothing anyone can do about this.
> 
> Therefore, October 1st, the IANA Stewardship Transition, was a very sad day for the Internet we know and cherish.
> 
> Eberhard Blocher
> EAHP KG
> P.O. Box 30 03 26
> 50773 Köln
> Germany
> http://www.eahp.com
> Tel. +49-221-9139535
> Fax +49-221-2711016
> http://cla.tel
> Am 04.10.2016 11:39, schrieb Remo Hardeman:
>> Hello All,
>> 
>> Hello Eberhard,
>> 
>> As in all discussions, please explain. In my humble Point of view, I seriously doubt that a more democratic approach would be harmful to "the rest of us"
>> 
>> Kind regards,
>> 
>> Remo Hardeman
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 03.10.2016, 20:19, "Roberto Gaetano" <roberto_gaetano at hotmail.com>:
>>> Hi Eberhard.
>>> 
>>> You say:
>>> 
>>> The new IANA Stewardship is good news for all US citizens who "know", and bad news for everybody else, mainly for those not being a US citizen, all over the world
>>> 
>>> Can you give a hint on why do you believe that?
>>> 
>>> In particular, being myself a non-US citizens, I don’t understand how US Government withdrawal from what was only the right of veto to changes to the DNS Root will diminish my power and rights.
>>> 
>>> Cheers,
>>> 
>>> Roberto
>>> 
>>>  
>>>  
>>>  
>>>  
>>> Da: euro-discuss-bounces at atlarge-lists.icann.org [mailto:euro-discuss-bounces at atlarge-lists.icann.org] Per conto di Eberhard Blocher
>>> Inviato: domenica 2 ottobre 2016 07:09
>>> A: euro-discuss at atlarge-lists.icann.org
>>> Oggetto: Re: [EURO-Discuss] Announcement on IANA Stewardship Transition (Rinalia Abdul Rahim)
>>> 
>>>  
>>> October 1st marks a sad day for the Internet. With IANA Stewardship transitioning from the NTIA to the ICANN multi-stakeholder community, the internet now is less transparent, less democratic and less accountable.
>>> 
>>> IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
>>> 
>>> it was declared
>>> 
>>> We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government (...)
>>> 
>>> NTIA being part of the US Government, means, following closely the US Declaration of Independence, that if it had become destructive of anything at all regarding the oversight of the IANA functions, there would have been procedures, established for 240 years, to alter or to abolish it. 
>>> 
>>> Now, with the new multi-stakeholder model in place for the oversight of the IANA function, all this has been discarded. How long will it take for the rest of the world to realize this? The new IANA                     Stewardship is good news for all US citizens who "know", and bad news for everybody else, mainly for those not being a US citizen, all over the world.
>>> 
>>> Eberhard Blocher
>>> EAHP KG
>>> P.O. Box 30 03 26
>>> 50773 Köln
>>> Germany
>>> http://www.eahp.com
>>> Tel. +49-221-9139535
>>> Fax +49-221-2711016
>>> http://cla.tel
>>>  
>>> 
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> 
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