<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;"><div>Did anyone think that right wing America Firsters wouldn’t use as much FUD as they could muster to try to derail the NTIA initiative? Check some of the Congressional grand stand statements.<div><br></div><div>This mess of mistatement and innuendo is SOP.</div></div><div><br></div><div>A “majority” of governments are authoritarian? That’s a pretty big paintbrush.</div><div><br></div><div>As Jon Postel said way back in 1591, governments do matter. Multistakeholderism without a role for governments isn’t going to work. ICANN is actually trying to smoke out behind the scenes gorilla behavior in the GAC by requiring recorded votes with a majority needed for “advice.” Raising the Board threshold for rejecting the advice is a nominal quid pro quo with little effect.</div><div><br></div><div>- Mike</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><br><div><div>On Sep 8, 2014, at 6:49 AM, Miles Fidelman <<a href="mailto:mfidelman@meetinghouse.net">mfidelman@meetinghouse.net</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite">
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Well, isn't this a nice kettle of fish.<br>
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The Internet Power Vacuum Worsens</h1>
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The U.S. hasn't even abandoned its Web protection yet, and
authoritarians are making their move.</h2>
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<div style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:12px;vertical-align:baseline;display:inline"><span rel="author" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-transform: uppercase;">L.
GORDON CROVIT</span></div>
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<div style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:1.1rem;vertical-align:baseline;min-height:auto;width:591.224975585938px;clear:both;font-family:Arial,helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:2.1rem;color:rgb(153,153,153)">Sept.
7, 2014 5:11 p.m. ET</div><p style="margin:0px 0px
1em;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:15px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:1.4em">The
Obama administration plan to give up U.S. protection of
the open Internet won't take effect for a year, but
authoritarian governments are already moving to grab
control. President Obama is learning it's as dangerous for
America to create a vacuum of power in the digital world
as in the real one.</p><p style="margin:0px 0px
1em;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:15px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:1.4em">In
March the administration asked Icann, the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, to suggest a
plan for overseeing the Internet after September 2015,
when U.S. governance is scheduled to end. The U.S. charged
this group, which maintains the root-zone file of domain
names and addresses, with somehow finding mechanisms to
prevent other governments from undermining the
permissionless, free-speech Internet built under U.S.
oversight.</p><p style="margin:0px 0px
1em;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:15px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:1.4em">Instead,
Icann set up a process to hand control over to
governments. Under the current "multistakeholder" system,
an advisory group of governments has only as much power as
other stakeholders, such as Web registries, website
owners, free-speech groups and other nonprofits. But in
August, Icann quietly proposed changing its bylaws to
rubber-stamp government decisions unless two-thirds of the
Icann board objects. In turn, Iran has proposed that the
government group move to majority voting from the current
consensus approach. That would enable the world's majority
of authoritarian governments to rewire the Internet more
to their liking.</p>
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</div><p style="margin:0px 0px
1em;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:15px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:1.4em">What
will this mean? Authoritarian governments could for the
first time censor the Web globally, not just in their own
countries. Russia could get Icann to withdraw Ukrainian
sites. China could engineer the world-wide removal of
sites supporting freedom for Hong Kong or Tibet. Iran
could censor its critics in the U.S. Website operators
could also expect new global fees and regulations.</p><p style="margin:0px 0px
1em;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:15px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:1.4em">Such
a change "would fundamentally transform Icann away from
being a 'bottom-up' and 'private sector-led' organization
and into a governmental regulatory agency," wrote Robin
Gross, a former chairman of the Icann group representing
nonprofits, on the CircleID blog. "Why Icann would
voluntarily choose to empower non-democratic governments
with an even greater say over global Internet policies as
this bylaw change would do is anyone's guess."</p><p style="margin:0px 0px
1em;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:15px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:1.4em">The
Internet Commerce Association, which represents Web
businesses, warns that the proposal "would transform Icann
into a government-led organization," which is "completely
counter" to the U.S. requirement that the Internet remain
free of government control.</p><p style="margin:0px 0px
1em;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:15px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:1.4em">In
a speech in July, a U.S. Commerce Departmentofficial
played down the danger. "The idea that governments could
enhance their influence within Icann by changing its rules
to allow for a majority vote on policy issues reflects a
misunderstanding of the policymaking process at Icann,"
said Assistant Secretary Lawrence Strickling. Wrong. Mr.
Strickling and his administration colleagues have
misunderstood how serious other governments are about
filling the vacuum of power with repression.</p><p style="margin:0px 0px
1em;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:15px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:1.4em">Icann
also upset all its major stakeholder groups by ignoring
their demand to make it more accountable absent U.S.
oversight. Stakeholders had instructed Icann to create an
"independent accountability mechanism that provides
meaningful review and adequate redress for those harmed by
Icann action or inaction in contravention of an
agreed-upon compact with the community." Instead, Icann
announced that it would oversee itself.</p><p style="margin:0px 0px
1em;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:15px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:1.4em">A
dozen stakeholder groups quickly sent Icann chief Fadi
Chehade a letter objecting. "How does Icann intend to
handle the inherent conflict of interest with developing
its own accountability plan?" they asked. "Why didn't
Icann invite proposals from the community and why wasn't
the community involved in the drafting of the staff plan?"</p><p style="margin:0px 0px
1em;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:15px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:1.4em">An
objection sent jointly by business and nonprofit
stakeholder groups to the Icann board said: "This plan,
imposed on the community without transparency and without
the opportunity for public comment, creates inconsistency,
disregards proper Icann procedure, injects unfairness into
the process and defeats the purpose of the entire
accountability examination."</p><p style="margin:0px 0px
1em;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:15px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:1.4em">Philip
Corwin, a lawyer specializing in Icann issues, calls
pushback against the organization "unprecedented." Last
week, Icann agreed to put off the new rules, but only for
a brief comment period.</p><p style="margin:0px 0px
1em;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:15px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:1.4em">Much
of the blame for the splintering of the multistakeholder
system lies with Mr. Obama's naďveté in putting Internet
governance up for grabs. He underestimated the importance
of Washington's control in maintaining an open
Internet—and the desire among other governments to close
the Internet. And there still is no plan to keep Icann
free from control by governments.</p><p style="margin:0px 0px
1em;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:15px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:1.4em">Administration
officials pledged to Congress that the U.S. would keep
control over the Internet if the alternative was to
empower other governments or if there isn't full
accountability for Icann. Both red lines have been
crossed.</p><p style="margin:0px 0px
1em;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:15px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:1.4em">If
Mr. Obama persists, Congress should block his plan with a
simple message: The open Internet is too valuable to
surrender.</p>
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