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Tag: Fadi Chehadé

  • ICANN Chief Says Russia, China Will Not Hijack Internet Oversight

    On March 14 the United States Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced plans to transition oversight of the nonprofit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to the global “multi-stakeholder” community.

    Headquartered in the Los Angeles suburb of Marina del Rey, ICANN controls what is essentially the address book of the Internet: the massive database of top level domain names such as .com, .gov., .net, and .org.

    Additionally, the NTIA currently contracts with ICANN to carry out the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions. The IANA is a responsible for managing the numbering system for Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.

    The NTIA’s contract with ICANN, which has been in existence since 1998, is set to expire in September 2015 and the Department of Commerce says it won’t renew the contract.

    “The timing is right to start the transition process,” said Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information Lawrence E. Strickling. “We look forward to ICANN convening stakeholders across the global Internet community to craft an appropriate transition plan.”

    Although the announcement was a relatively quiet, low-key one, it didn’t take long for conservatives to start questioning it.

    Republican lawmakers John Shimkus (Illinois), Todd Rokita (Indiana), and Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee) rushed to introduce the Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters (DOTCOM) Act in the House of Representatives.

    The trio said they created the DOTCOM Act “in response the recent Department of Commerce announcement that the U.S. would relinquish its remaining oversight of the Internet’s domain name system to an ill-defined ‘global Internet community.’”

    “In the month of March alone we’ve seen Russia block opposition websites, Turkey ban Twitter, China place new restrictions on online video, and a top Malaysian politician pledge to censor the Internet if he’s given the chance,” Shimkus said. “This isn’t a theoretical debate. There are real authoritarian governments in the world today who have no tolerance for the free flow of information and ideas. What possible benefit could come from giving the Vladimir Putins of the world a new venue to push their anti-freedom agendas?”

    Even former President Bill Clinton has weighed in with doubts about the multi-stakeholder model: “I understand in theory why we would like to have a multi-stakeholder process. I favor that … I just know that a lot of these so-called multi-stakeholders are really governments that want to gag people and restrict access to the internet.”

    On Wednesday ICANN president and CEO Fadi Chehadé, who has long pushed for globalization of the Internet oversight process, defended the NTIA’s plans.

    “Everyone is focused on these three, four countries … but in between we have 150 other countries that value the same values we do.”

    Chehadé conceded that individuals or governments might indeed attempt to seize control of the Internet, but insisted that the “multi-stakeholder model, it stops them. I agree that people will talk about capturing (control of ICANN), but they haven’t. For 15 years ICANN has operated without one government or any government capturing the decision making.”

    Politico calls the announcement a “smart, strategic move by Commerce to formalize, on its own terms, a process of increased globalization that has been going on for some time. It’s actually the opposite of what the critics claim: The Obama administration is trying to head off rising global pressure to give other countries, including China and Russia, more of a say in how the Internet is governed, not bow to it.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • New ICANN CEO Lays Out The Future Of The Internet Under His Watch

    ICANN is sort of like the Justice League of the Internet. They are a NGO that’s dedicated to protecting the Internet from any one stakeholder from gaining too much power. They are the people behind the expansion of the gTLDs earlier this summer that led to Google and Amazon bidding over domain names like .book and .talk. The group now has a new CEO and he has a plan to keep the Internet like it always has – free of any one stakeholder’s influence.

    On June 22, ICANN announced that Fadi Chehadé was to become the next CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Since the announcement, it was expected that Chehadé would take on the role of CEO starting October 1. That’s why it’s a surprise that he has announced his rise to the position of CEO starting today. He relieves Akram Attalah of his duties as interim CEO who will now return to his prior position as COO.

    “I have spent the past two months asking myself and many others from all over the Internet community worldwide the same questions,” said Chehadé. “How can ICANN work better with its stakeholders to bring all interested parties to the table to debate and agree how to improve the DNS? How can we ensure that all global citizens can share an open Internet which is sustainable and resilient?”

    Chehadé says that his plan puts stakeholders first. He will be amassing a team to help speed up Internet engagement across the world. He will also be expanding the roles of his key officers to help oversee the new initiatives from ICANN including the creation of multiple new gTLDs.

    ICANN will also be establishing many of its top brass in European regions to help “strengthen ICANN’s international engagement at all levels.” This includes Tarek Kamel, senior adviser to the CEO, who will be in charge of developing an effective strategy to boost Internet penetration in Africa.

    “I’ve spent the summer putting the right team in place – looking deep within ICANN and beyond to find the best mix of talents to help me to fulfill ICANN’s mission,” said Chehadé. “Frankly I am impressed and humbled by what these diverse leaders bring to the table. I’ve been fortunate to have great support from the ICANN Board as well as the staff and I know that we will be able to build upon the organization’s many achievements.”

    He will also be making many other departments report directly to him. Most corporations would rather have a supervisor below them to take care of the smaller details, but it looks like Chehadé is up for the challenge. Here’s hoping the new management can help prevent more incidents like those that plagued the gTLD registrations earlier this year.