Brazilian Judge Shuts Down WhatsApp for 48 Hours

A judge in Sao Paulo has ordered WhatsApp to shut down for 48 hours, starting at 9pm Eastern tonight. WhatsApp is the single most used app in Brazil, with about 93 million users, or 93% of the country’s internet population. It’s a particularly useful service for Brazil’s youth and poor, many who cannot afford to …

.Africa IRP: The Transcript that cost ICANN – GAC’s “Creative ambiguity, We leave things unclear so we don’t have conflict”

GAC has been now found to be one of the biggest impediment to ICANN’s accountability and transparency standards this is due to the several times that GAC’s intervention of the new top level domain has been found to be meddling with applicants without reason or strong reasons to back their consensus objection. Applicants for strings …

Congress to ICANN: Approve .Amazon as proof of accountability, before IANA Transition

The co-chairs of the Congressional Trademark Caucus, Rep. Randy Forbes [R-VA4] and Rep. Suzan DelBene [D-WA1] have written to ICANN informing them that they need to approve Amazon’s application for .Amazon which has been rejected due to “rights” asserted by Brazil nor Peru in relation to the Amazon Forest raised by Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC). …

ICANN GAC new gTLD interference gets fresh Congressional attention

The ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) articulation and handling of several new top level domains has received under the ICANN new gTLD release has received a new critical but worrisome analysis from the US congressional Committees on Transportation and Infrastructure , Oversight and Government reform and Judiciary. The GAC which created under the ICANN ByLaws …

NETmundial: Brazil announces itself as Trojan horse vs multistakeholder process while invoking it

U.S. Aims to Defuse Tension Over Control of Internet Some Nations Push for New Supervisory Body The U.S. has agreed to give up supervision of the Internet policy-making body that controls domain names, hoping to satisfy countries that want more international control over the Internet. This week, Washington will find out if its actions have …

Frédéric Riehl on NETmundial: ‘We’re not going to pull a rabbit out of a hat’

Brazil is playing host this week to the “World Cup of internet governance”, as technology magazine Wired put it. States, hi-tech firms and civil society players will compete over how the net is managed. A Swiss negotiator gives his insights. Frédéric Riehl, deputy director of the Federal Communication Office, is one of three Swiss negotiators …