UNESCO CONNECTing the Dots conference adopts an outcome document

The UNESCO facilitated and international multistakeholder conference under the theme CONNECTing the Dots: Options for Future Action to discuss the first draft of the Comprehensive Study on Internet-related issues. The objective of the conference was to discuss the first draft of the Comprehensive Study on Internet-related issues as part of UNESCO’s response in support of …

Was ICANN’s 2015 budget forecast too rosy?

ICANN dramatically downgrades new gTLD revenues by 57%, forecasts renewals at 25% to 50% ICANN released its 2016 draft FY16 Operating Plan & Budget for the fiscal year beginning this July, and it shows weaker-than-expected new top level domain name results in the current year. The group expects just $14.1 million in revenue from new …

Donuts challenges ICANN’s .Doctor decision

Stethoscope may be required to register a .Doctor domain name. Donuts has filed a reconsideration request after ICANN decided to slam the door on who can register a domain name under the .doctor top level domain name. Last month, ICANN’s New gTLD Program Committee determined that .Doctor should be a namespace restricted only to “legitimate …

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 …

Sophia Bekele, “No Legal Basis for IANA Transition”: A Post-Mortem Analysis of Senate Committee Hearing

As published on CircleID Only proper regulation by an independent agency with full Congressional mandate will ensure that a ‘FIFA-Mafia type’ organization of systematic corruption does not emerge. ICANN should not be trusted by Congress to regulate itself. Introduction – The cure is closer, and not arms-length, Internet supervision The recent hearing conducted by the …

ICANN temporarily takes its New gTLD Applicant & GDD portals offline amid security leak scare

ICANN has announced that it temporarily took its New gTLD Applicant and GDD portals offline on 27 February 2015 to investigate a reported security issue. This week’s announcement also follows on the heels of a spear-phishing attack in December where a number of ICANN’s systems were compromised including the Centralized Zone Data System (CZDS) – …

US SENATE HEARING: Preserving the Multistakeholder Model of Internet Governance

The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation full committee held a hearing entitled “Preserving the Multistakeholder Model of Internet Governance” Hearing Details: Wednesday, February 25, 2015 – 10:00 a.m. EST (US) This hearing took place in Senate Russell Office Building, Room 253. LIVE video REPLAY of the hearing available HERE. Witnesses: • Mr. Fadi Chehadé, CEO, …