IANA transition, Google Responds to ICANN Draft Proposal

Kudos to Google and its Policy Manager, Sarah Falvey, for Google's thoughtful contribution to ICANN's Draft Proposal to Transition NTIA's Stewardship of the IANA Functions - definitely a "must read" for anyone interested in this ongoing historical process which will affect the IANA functions in the future--including technical administration of the internet, its security, and stability. You can read Google's full statement here (pdf), excerpts follow below.

"....Given the importance of the task, it is critical the following principles are upheld:
● The transition must support and enhance the multistakeholder model;
● The transition must maintain the security, stability, and resiliency of the DNS;
● The transition must meet the expectations of affected parties; and,
● The transition must maintain the openness of the Internet."

".... It is clear that the sunsetting of the U.S. Government’s stewardship role creates two distinct challenges for the community: first, we need to determine a process for the stewardship of these technical functions; and second, we we need to ensure overall oversight or accountability for ICANN’s broader policy-making remit to ensure ICANN remains accountable to the broader community..."

"...convene a full debate on the issue of the IANA functions oversight transition. Let us be clear: we are not necessarily saying ICANN should relinquish its role as the IANA functions operator..." [DomainMondo note: but that possibility is definitely now on the table!]

"The draft scoping document enumerates the role of the ICANN Board of Directors...At a minimum, this proposed plan creates the appearance of a conflict of interest, if not an actual conflict of interest, for the ICANN Board... the Board has a vested interest in ensuring ICANN’s continued relevancy within the Internet governance ecosystem and arguably has an interest in scoping the process to preserve ICANN’s existing role...."

"As noted in the NTIA announcement, determining the parameters of the scope of the IANA transition process is a decision that should be left to the community, and the Board of Directors’ fiduciary duty to ICANN as an institution may cloud its ability to scope the process objectively. Allowing the steering group to perform this task would also free up the Board to work on other pressing matters facing the ICANN community, such as implementation of the ATRT recommendations and broader concerns over organizational accountability and transparency..."


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