proposed statement on domain abuse and content regulation

[Sam Lanfranco]

All,

 From the beginning there has always been what amounts to a strict 
demarcation, to distinguish between "domain name abuse" and "content 
regulation". ICANN, by the very nature of its mandate and its remit, 
must steer clear of "content regulation". This does not downplay the 
difficult and complex issues around content on the Internet, and around 
efforts at content regulation, but it underscores the simple fact that 
ICANN is not in the business of content regulation, and will/should 
never venture into that area.

There are ample other policy venues in which to address the complex and 
thorny issues surrounding content regulation. Many of us are involved in 
those venues as well, as venues with a distinct remit in their own 
right. I join others in endorsing the proposed statement and find 
nothing in the wording that I take issue with.

Sam Lanfranco (ncsg/npoc)

/On Sun, Oct 29, 2017 at 10:30 AM, Mueller, Milton L <milton at gatech.edu 
<mailto:milton at gatech.edu>> wrote:
Dear NCSG members:

In the next email I will send a proposed statement about domain abuse. Those
of you involved with NCUC will recognize it, it has been circulated on the
NCUC list and discussed extensively there.

We would also like to get the endorsement of NCSG as a whole for this
statement. So I send it to the NCSG list for you to review./

--------

*Proposed statement on domain abuse and content regulation*

As civil society stakeholders concerned about individual rights and freedom
of expression on the Internet, we think it is important to maintain a clear
distinction between illegal content and domain name abuse. We wish to
clarify and reaffirm ICANN’s limited mission.

Domain abuse involves cases in which the domain itself is causing problems,
such as domains that facilitate fraud and exploit confusion, support
phishing via confusing or deceptive strings, or domains that support botnet
command and control operations.

We are concerned that the concept of “domain abuse” is being stretched to
include various forms of allegedly “illegal” or “undesirable” content on
webpages, listservs and email addresses associated with domain names. This
includes the use of domain names for political speech, personal expression
and competitive discussions. An overly-broad definition of “domain abuse”
would require ICANN to enter the realm of decision-maker or judge on whether
the webpage was a copyright-infringement or fair use, involved legal use of
a trademark to criticize a company’s products or practices or trademark
infringement, and whether hate speech, whose definition and legal status
varies from country to country, was legitimate or not.

We believe that content that is allegedly illegal or objectionable is not
“domain abuse” and is best addressed through other, well-established legal
and regulatory methods, or through cooperative and self-regulatory action by
Internet service providers. Neither ICANN nor its contracted parties should
try to make DNS policy become the nexus for global content regulation.

We remind all participants that ICANN’s mission, as defined in Section
1.1.(a)(i) of its bylaws, is narrowly confined to policies “for which
uniform or coordinated resolution is reasonably necessary to facilitate the
openness, interoperability, resilience, security and/or stability of the
DNS.” That clearly does not include content regulation. Moreover, the bylaws
contain a specific prohibition on regulating “services that use the
Internet's unique identifiers or the content that such services carry or
provide, outside the express scope of Section 1.1(a).”

Expansion of ICANN’s mission into content regulation will further politicize
ICANN, and overload DNS policy with extraneous concerns that threaten the
openness and interoperability of the DNS.

Accordingly, we call upon the ICANN board and all ICANN policy processes to
adopt a precise and narrow definition of domain abuse, one that is
consistent with ICANN’s limited mission.



Dr. Milton L. Mueller
Professor, School of Public Policy
Georgia Institute of Technology
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