[NA-Discuss] Fwd: The Internet Society on Egypt’s Internet shutdown

Marc Rotenberg rotenberg at epic.org
Sun Jan 30 20:26:32 UTC 2011


Well, as the newcomer, I will continue to ask the dumb questions,
but this is what the ICANN bylaws say as to the creation of ALAC:

  "The role of the At-Large Advisory Committee ("ALAC") shall be 
  to consider and provide advice on the activities of ICANN,
 insofar as they relate to the interests of individual Internet users."

This statement suggests that ALAC has the freedom to say
what ICANN should or should not do when the interests of
individual Internet users are concerned. And the decision of
a national government to limit the ability of individuals to
access the Internet would seem to be high on the list.

There are, to be sure, a broad range of statements that can
be made, but a good starting point is to ask if  ALAC has 
issued statements on similar developments in the past.

It might also be a good opportunity to collaborate with
NCUC.

Marc.


On Jan 30, 2011, at 3:15 PM, Evan Leibovitch wrote:

> ICANN != civil society, and it's only a small piece of the puzzle known as "Internet Governance".
> 
> Our role here in At-Large is fairly specific, and limited to advising ICANN on matters regarding its own relatively constrained authority.
> 
> Is there something SPECIFIC that we can say to the ICANN Board regarding a chance to its policies or practices that will improve or assure freedom of access? Is there anything ICANN, its policies or business relations could possibly have done to prevent (or lessen the impact of) government-decreed denial of service?
> 
> If so, we should -- we must -- articulate such changes clearly and forcefully. But it is pointless to advocate (in this particular forum) change that ICANN is unable to affect.It's hypocritical for us to spend our energy to keep ICANN confined to its own areas of authority and competency, then produce out-of-scope pronouncements (that might make the authors feel good but will be otherwise ignored).
> 
> - Evan
> 





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