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

[Eric Brunner-Williams]

Continuing ...

>  - Recognize ICANN's limited authority on policy matters

Much as I personally like Manal Ismail it is difficult to imagine her 
being an effective spokesperson for the GAC, at Brussels, San 
Francisco or Amman.

As Andrew McLaughlin pointed out in his open letter to Dr. Tarek 
Kamel, he too faces a limited range of choices as an accepted figure 
of merit or authority.

It may be prudent for ICANN to forgo the assistance of the 
representatives of the Egyptian government at present, and for some 
time to come. Of course, it may also be prudent for Egypt to find that 
its representatives are otherwise engaged and need not be the focus of 
public comment critical of administrative induced network failure.

Next, is the intentional failure of the .eg registry consistent with 
the purposes and positions of record of the ccNSO? I have a hard time 
imagining Chris Despain making the case that the principle of 
subsidiarity means that ccTLDs can be turned on and off at the whim of 
national governments.

Applications for new gTLDs that propose to site, primarily or 
secondarily, in Egypt, have already been harmed by the need to find 
alternate primary or secondary siting, at some additional cost or 
complexity. When the interests of the registrants, rather than the 
interests of the registries, is considered, it may be prudent to 
reject all new gTLD applications which propose to site within the 
territorial jurisdiction of Egypt, or use any four of the five 
principle network operators subject to administrative induced failure 
on January 22nd.

In general, I find the "ICANN is powerless" claim to be non persuasive.

Eric