That’s a follow-up post a few days ago

  <https://domainincite.com/31072-icann-reaffirms-its-commitment-to-diversity-and-inclusion>

Best

Hadia

From: Evan Leibovitch via At-Large <at-large@icann.org>
Sent: 20 May 2025 10:37
To: Gunela Astbrink <g.astbrink@gsa.com.au>; Karl Auerbach <karl@cavebear.com>
Cc: at-large@icann.org
Subject: [External] [At-Large] Re: ICANN bows to Trump

On Mon, May 19, 2025 at 8:02 PM Karl Auerbach via At-Large <at-large@icann.org> wrote:

More than a pity.  ICANN's footprint is worldwide.  Yet here is ICANN dancing to a foul tune of hate, bias, and discrimination being played by exactly one of the more than 150 national governments.

What is truly amazing is that anyone is surprised by this. The footprint may be worldwide but the feet belong to that one government.

Others foresaw the problem. The RISC-V Foundation moved its headquarters from the USA to Switzerland in 2019 because, unlike ICANN, it actually WANTED to be an international body rather than just cosplay as one.

On Mon, May 19, 2025 at 10:09 PM Gunela Astbrink via At-Large <at-large@icann.org> wrote:

Will ALAC be discussing and making a statement?

It can, but it is guaranteed to be pointless and powerless. That ship sailed away years ago when ALAC abrogated its commitment to speak for the world's end-users at the time of the IANA transition. Given the opportunity to become a truly international body accountable to the people of the world, ALAC bought into the utter bullshit of an "Empowered Community" that would ensure ongoing capture by American commercial interests who like playing by American rules. And if that means bending to the American political winds of the day, so be it.

THAT was the time to take the courageous stand in support of the public interest that ALAC is charged to represent: to refuse to merely pass the accountability torch from American state interest to American commercial interest. It is these commercial interests that are threatened more by White House DEI rants than ICANN itself, but ... you reap what you sow. ALAC's self-selected elite forgot why they were there and chose willingly to be co-opted. Sitting on bureaucratic committees and redlining documents is a game you understand well; the thought of actively opposing the common wisdom OTOH was a source of raw fear and intense risk-aversion.

What will ICANN staff think of us?

Will GNSO invite us to meetings anymore?

Will anyone allow us to have liaisons?

Will they cut our travel funding?

And out of this fear, ALAC continued to play the game, with a few tweaks here and there, rather than advocate for real ICANN accountability to the diversity of the world. And you now see the result.

ALAC's true power is -- or at least could be -- not in the daily minutiae of statements and comments, but serving as ICANN's conscience. After all, its bylaw mandate is to advise the Board directly, everything else is secondary.

Every few years a major occasion arises that enables ALAC to give voice to a world that doesn't buy domains yet is impacted by them. By and large every time these have happened -- treatment of TLD applicants from the global south, Universal Acceptance, the IANA transition, the proposed sale of .ORG -- ALAC has taken the easy paths, the ones that don't actually anger ICANN staff or the commercial interests (though ALAC is allowed to annoy them on occasion for the sake of appearances). While taking the path of least resistance may sometimes be a better choice, it should not be the default stance.

Statements now might make the writers feel good but will struggle to find an audience. ALAC's complicity in ICANN's current trajectory is too well established for a meek objection at this point to have any credibility at all outside the bubble (and even inside).

If there is any interest AT ALL in re-establishing credibility, perhaps ALAC may want to reflect on its actions, learn from them and may even take some back. Next year is the 10th anniversary of the IANA transition: an in-depth and honest study and review of its effects on ICANN's accountability to the world -- including the events that started this thread -- would be a good start.

- Evan