ICANN Stakeholders Raise Questions on Scope, Substance of Accountability Proposals
ICANN stakeholders urged leaders of the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability) during ICANN’s meeting in Buenos Aires Wednesday to consider moving to the back burner some issues it’s considering addressing in a proposal on new ICANN accountability. It's a bid to simplify the proposal to include only changes deemed critical for the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition. CCWG-Accountability and the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG) are working on plans for the IANA transition process, evaluating several community proposals on the transition. The IANA transition process has been, as expected (see 1506190061), the dominant topic at ICANN’s Buenos Aires meeting, which is taking place amid a legislative push to give Congress more oversight over the transition.
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The House passed Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters (DOTCOM) Act Tuesday, as expected (see 1506230066), 378-25. HR-805 and its Senate version (S-1551) would give Congress 30 legislative days to review a report from NTIA certifying that ICANN’s IANA transition plan meets U.S. goals on maintaining Internet openness before NTIA could relinquish its IANA oversight authority. The bill would also require ICANN to adopt CCWG-Accountability’s final accountability proposal before NTIA can complete the transition. Twenty-four of the 25 votes against HR-805 were Republicans, including Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., who reintroduced the Global Internet Freedom Act (HR-355) in January to completely prohibit NTIA from proceeding with the IANA transition (see 1501150030). Rep. Mike Capuano, D-Mass., was the only House Democrat to vote against HR-805. An additional 20 Democrats and 10 Republicans didn’t vote.
Several industry groups praised House passage of HR-805 and urged the Senate to subsequently adopt S-1551, including the Information Technology Industry Council, NCTA and the Software & Information Industry Association. The Senate Commerce Committee is to mark up S-1551 Thursday, with the possibility continuing at our deadline that Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, might seek an amendment requiring the House and Senate to hold an up or down vote on the IANA transition. Americans for Limited Government released a draft version of Cruz’s amendment Wednesday and asked its supporters to sign a petition urging Senate Commerce to adopt the amendment. Industry lobbyists who first told us about the amendment Tuesday have said it would likely face solid opposition from Senate Commerce Democrats.
Kavouss Arasteh, Iran Ministry of Information and Communications Technology senior adviser and a member of ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee, was one of several who urged CCWG-Accountability Wednesday to continue simplifying its accountability proposal as the group moves forward. CCWG-Accountability needs to “carefully” consider questions that NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling posed to ICANN stakeholders in advance of the Buenos Aires meeting, Arasteh said. The CCWG-Accountability proposal now under development needs to allow for “enhanced” accountability in advance of the IANA transition rather than being a comprehensive accountability document, he said. CCWG-Accountability is set to consider additional accountability issues following the IANA transition, so the proposal under development should only address “the most immediate, urgent and important” issues, Arasteh said. Verizon Director-International Public Policy and Regulatory Affairs Cheryl Miller also urged CCWG-Accountability to put off addressing some accountability issues until its post-IANA transition work stream.
Others raised concerns with CCWG-Accountability’s proposals for relying on the judicial process as the ultimate guarantee of the ICANN community’s powers to influence ICANN board decisions, including ICANN board member George Sadowsky. Involving courts in the ICANN accountability process “clashes” with the less formalized Internet governance structure that has been in place for decades, Sadowsky said. Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group member Robin Gross also raised concerns about involving the judicial process. Making courts the enforcer of new ICANN accountability mechanisms appears to be “an awfully big hammer,” she said, suggesting that CCWG-Accountability consider “softer enforcement mechanisms.”