Update by ICANN’s Government Engagement team 

(Mandy Carver ICANN

SVP, Government & IGO Engagement; Rebecca McGilley

ICANN Organization

Director Government and IGO Engagement,  Alexey Trepykhalin, IGO engagement at ICANN; Nora Mari, Government & IGO Engagement; Elena Plexida,  Vice President, Government & IGO Engagement) regarding Internet related public policy issues, including international / intergovernmental and national (municipal) normative, legislative and regulatory proposals that may impact ICANN’s technical mission, policies and processes. Session had a section focused on legal/regulatory developments in the Asia-Pacific region.

Mandy Carver- general intro statements about relevant challenges / perceptions out there like potential capture of MSM model, activities by governments and IGOs like ITU in DNS space, among others

Alexey Trepykhalin- IGO Activities: cybersecurity deliberations at UN; ITU Plenipotentiary 26 September will be most important.  Election of SG will be significant.  Also ITU-Plenipotenciary (ITU PP-22) to discuss several Resolutions (#101, 102, 130, 133, 180) that affect IP/DNS, IDNs, and the MSM model, therefore also ICANN’s Mission of security and interoperability of Internet.

Nora Mari-  Legislation update: EU: 1) Digital Services Act to come into force in 1/2024; 2)The Network and Information Security 2 (NIS2) Directive to achieve a high common level of cybersecurity across EU Member States to move forward in October.

Elena Plexida: EU proposals on Geographical Indicators; AI Regulations; EU digital identity framework; Discussions about future legislation on “fair share” - “Fair share' is a proposal to make the most traffic-intensive platforms pay the cost of connectivity. The platforms call it an 'internet traffic tax'. BEREC (Body of European Regulators of Electronic Comms) discussing.

Mandy Carver- APAC Developments: 1) China’s PIPL (Personal Information  Protection Law) took effect Nov 2021 - similar to GDPR. 2) Several Indian developments (IT Act 2000, as amended & regs; 3) Personal Data Protection laws in Thailand, Japan, Sri Lanka,  Vietnam, Bangladesh. 

Other: Vietnam & Cambodian  acts/decrees on Internet use, management.

-Queue opens- 

-All in person commenters were thankful and recognized good work of ICANN Orgs IGO engagement team to keep Community updated.

-Online commenter from Russia criticized ICANNs characterization of ITU and Russian activities as negative and spoke at length about jurisdictional issues and supposed jurisdictional / extraterritorial ICANN overreach.  Mandy Carver replied and defended that they are not interpreting anything; they are restating what is expressed in specific statements and resolutions.

-African online commenter focused on alleged impacts of ICANN on digital sovereignty.

-Discussions on need for Community to participate in IGF and other events, to be aware and impact “Internet fragmentation” and other relevant discussions.

-EU Commission Rep to GAC:  trying to address issues where we see them.  On Internet / DNS Fragmentation, Open Internet: “lets collaborate (EU / ICANN).   Defense of MSM model. Let’s improve things together.”

Javier Rúa-Jovet