Hi all.

This commentary is somewhat more high level than usual, and does not deal with Internet names and numbers specifically. But I think the point to be made is important since so many of the people in this community are involved -- some indeed as a career path -- in the realm of what is known in these circles as Internet Governance (of which ICANN is a small but important part).

I have made the point before that, in the absence of being backed by international treaty, Internet Governance as we know it has its foundation on a bed of quicksand. And now WSIS+20 has come and gone with little to show for it beyond the usual platitudes and aspirations and commitments to keep talking -- basically an IGF meeting on steroids. Different approaches and ideas are necessary to prevent this world from descending into irrelevance (if that hasn't already happened). I'm not expecting much from the official UNGA declaration in December.

I have sadly come to the same conclusion George Carlin expressed 17 years ago, that there are no such things as human rights, just privileges and aspirations. Any "rights" which can be bestowed by governments or religions can be just as easily subverted by those same entities.

The latest move to confirm this thesis is the move of the EU towards eliminating all citizen privacy(*) in digital communications in its proposed Chat Control Law, shrouded under the usual political obfuscation. (Hint: just about every regulation that claims to protect children is a thinly shrouded campaign to control adults.)

(*) The politicians making these decisions have, of course, exempted themselves.

My Carlin reference is because this is the same EU that gave the world the vaunted GDPR; ie, you are entitled to privacy ... until you aren't. If that isn't safe then nothing is. Free-speech, due-process and even core participatory "rights" in many supposedly liberal democracies are under threats not experienced in my lifetime.

To me one answer here is to, unfortunately, aim lower. The massive shopping list of WSIS issues needs to be pared down dramatically, to make a concise and compelling case for protecting the world's citizens as much from their governments as from the handful of companies that control the world's Internet and AI infrastructures. It's better to start from no rights and build up than starting from infinite rights and then having to choose which ones to jettison along the way.

(Personally, I would just start with the Golden Rule which has equivalencies in every culture and religion, and work up from there.)

I don't claim to have all the answers, or indeed any. But there are some really smart people in these groups, many of whom have dedicated their lives to making the digital world useful and productive for everyone. Their work is cut out for them should they choose to actually advance these causes, because the current path is practically guaranteed not to succeed, as we are seeing in real time.

Something else is needed. Time to innovate.

The choice is discomfort or futility.