US Congress to hold hearing on .sucks gTLD and ICANN accountability

A Congressional hearing called  “Stakeholder Perspectives on ICANN: The .sucks Domain and Essential Steps to Guarantee Trust and Accountability in the Internet’s Operation” has been scheduled by the House Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet It will take place in Washington DC next Wednesday, May 13. The announcement has however not listed any …

DCA Wins Again – .Africa IRP Panel declares No revisiting the 2014 ruling: Says Booking.com final declaration is of no consequence

DCA has won yet another IRP duel after the Panel ruled in favor of its own arguments. The Panel arbitrating the DCA Trust vs. ICANN IRP has declared that; “After deliberation and careful consideration by all three Panel member o the Parties respective submissions and supporting authorities, the Panel is unanimously of the view that …

Troubling Revelations Regarding the IANA Transition – Major Alarming Gaffes by ICANN CEO

The one million dollar question however is: “If the ICANN CEO thinks that the CWG does not understand how the IANA functions work, and no body else understands it but ICANN, then why give such an important responsibility of aspects of the IANA Transition proposal to a group of people that presumably do not understand how the …

Draft Policy to censor internet in South Africa called out as ‘unconstitutional’

The Right2Know Campaign has issued a statement in response to the South African Film & Publication Board’s (FPB) recent draft policy proposing to regulate online content in the country, rejecting the plan as “unnecessary censorship” and “unconstitutional”. The policy claims that regulation of online content is the prerogative of the FPB, as a purported means …

Breaking: A win for Africa! ICANN ditches plan to hand Governments more Veto power, “It’s off the table”

Source: CIO East Africa – Top Story The ICANN proposed Bylaws revisions that would incorporate a higher voting threshold for the Board to determine not to follow the advice of the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) has officially been “taken off the table”. Although a surprise announcement to the community, this has been confirmed by the …

Senator John Thune on ICANN: “There is much oversight that Congress and my committee must do…”

As reported on internetcommerce.org Senate Commerce Committee Plans ICANN Oversight Hearing Elections do have consequences. Last year outgoing Senate Commerce Committee Chairman (D-WV) Jay Rockefeller resisted member requests to engage in oversight on the Obama Administration’s March 2014 announcement that it intended to end the U.S. counterparty role on the IANA functions contract and turn …

Senators Hatch and Blunt call for more awareness on issues of Internet governance

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, chairman of the Senate Republican High-Tech Task Force, and Sen. Roy Blunt, member of the Senate Commerce Committee, introduced a resolution Tuesday to increase awareness of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s announced intention to transition its stewardship role over the Internet’s domain name system to the global community. …