[Ncsg-discuss] Is ICANN helping to subvert its own governance model?
Anriette Esterhuysen
anriette at APC.ORG
Thu Nov 13 13:03:50 EET 2025
Thanks Rafik
I think it is good for NCSG to encourage open and critical discussion of
this and starting with a request for information is the best place to start.
Anriette
Anriette Esterhuysen -anriette at apc.org//anriette at gmail.com
On 2025/11/13 12:45, Rafik Dammak wrote:
> hi all,
>
> As suggested, here is a draft letter that we can send to the ICANN
> board and CEO to ask for more clarification. We are not assuming any
> intent or malice but we should get more clarification about any ICANN
> role in the matter or participation. An official letter will require
> the board to respond compared to any informal communication.
>
> Please review the letter and share your comments
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CPgRLILaCtsda8YRA4mUtElLXYS6udjF8cHvTo2AXHI/edit?usp=sharing
>
> Best,
>
> Rafik
>
> Le mer. 12 nov. 2025 à 03:10, Mueller, Milton L
> <00001d75540da649-dmarc-request at listserv.syr.edu> a écrit :
>
> Emmanuel, thanks for your response.
>
> I have done some fact checking and also can find no evidence that
> ICANN funded CAIGA. I have asked ICANN's VPs to confirm this but
> as noted in my earlier message they have not replied. As far as I
> can tell that is the only inaccuracy in Alice's post.
>
> Even if there is no funding, there is of course the November 2024
> MoU, which seems to authorize special efforts to empower
> governments in Section 3.3
> https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/mou-smart-africa-icann-12nov24-en.pdf
>
>
> It is a bit disingenuous to say that Smart Africa is not an
> intergovernmental entity when its board entirely consists of heads
> of state. https://smartafrica.org/the-board-2/ Anyone who has been
> around internet governance circles as long as I have sees many
> instances of governments professing (perhaps sincerely) to be
> "multistakeholder" when in fact they are just states seeking
> consultation from other stakeholders but not really sharing power.
>
>
> Dr. Milton L Mueller
>
> Georgia Institute of Technology
>
> School of Public Policy
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* Emmanuel Vitus <emmanuelvitus at gmail.com>
> *Sent:* Monday, November 10, 2025 10:08 PM
> *To:* Mueller, Milton L <milton at gatech.edu>
> *Cc:* NCSG-DISCUSS at listserv.syr.edu <NCSG-DISCUSS at listserv.syr.edu>
> *Subject:* Re: Is ICANN helping to subvert its own governance model?
>
> Dear Prof.
>
> Thank you for sharing Alice’s article and for keeping this
> important discussion alive. I would, however, suggest some
> caution, as several of the claims being circulated are not
> supported by the factual record.
>
> I reviewed the meeting proceedings from Prague, the AIS in Accra,
> and most recently Dublin, where the CAIGA blueprint was presented.
> ICANN was never mentioned as a sponsor or financier. The document,
> attached here, has been shared with the community since Prague for
> review and contribution. Consultations are still ongoing across
> Africa to establish an advisory body that will help coordinate
> African voices in global Internet governance.
>
> Smart Africa is an alliance of 40 African governments working with
> the private sector, Regional Economic Communities, universities,
> and other institutions. It is not a government agency or political
> instrument. it's not the African Union. It has an NGO status.
>
> For transparency, I recently published an opinion piece
> <https://medium.com/@emmanuelvitus/smart-africa-icann-caiga-afrinic-how-the-brouhaha-exposes-the-politics-of-african-digital-cf3ddc42beca> linking
> all transcripts and documents from ICANN public meetings to help
> anyone verify the facts. It may lack a touch of diplomacy :), but
> it was written in good faith. Having followed and written about
> the AfriNIC crisis for years, I find it ironic that some of those
> who once praised Smart Africa’s intervention now question the same
> process that helped save the continent’s only Internet registry.
>
> Warm regards
> *Emmanuel Vitus*
>
>
> Le lun. 10 nov. 2025 à 19:59, Mueller, Milton L
> <milton at gatech.edu> a écrit :
>
> I want to make sure that everyone in NCSG has read this
> substack article by Alice Munyua of Kenya. Although it deals
> with IP address policy not DNS policy, the issues it raises
> apply to the entire ICANN ecosystem.
> The TL;DR is that ICANN has supported an African organization
> that is rooted in national governments and is proposing to set
> up an overlay governance structure for AFRINIC that
> disempowers the community members and gives governments veto
> power over policy decisions. As Alice writes in her post,
>
> The RIR system; AFRINIC, APNIC, ARIN, LACNIC, RIPE NCC manages
> the internet’s addressing infrastructure globally. These
> organisations work because they are built on community trust
> and technical independence from governmental control. The
> system works because the same principles apply everywhere;
> bottom up policy development, community self governance,
> insulation from political direction. If those principles do
> not apply in Africa, if intergovernmental organisations can
> draft bylaws externally, coordinate electoral outcomes, and
> substitute political endorsement for member ratification then
> the precedent affects the global system.
> Here is a link to the post:
> https://substack.com/home/post/p-177968365
>
> Alice poses some useful questions that ICANN's management
> needs to answer:
>
> We need
>
> *
> Transparency about ICANN’s full involvement in developing
> CAIGA [including] the scope of participation and financial
> support.
> *
> Explicit assessment of CAIGA’s compatibility with ICP-2
> and the RIR governance principles that apply to RIPE NCC,
> ARIN, APNIC, and LACNIC.
> *
> Answer to the direct question: Would ICANN support similar
> governmental restructuring of RIRs in other regions? If
> not, justification for why different standards apply to
> African internet governance.
> *
> Commitment that any AFRINIC governance reforms will be
> developed through AFRINIC’s own community processes, not
> external drafting with political endorsement mechanisms.
>
>
>
> Dr. Milton L Mueller
>
> Georgia Institute of Technology
>
> School of Public Policy
>
> <https://internetgovernance.org>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ncsg.is/pipermail/ncsg-discuss/attachments/20251113/f3cf96c6/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Outlook-r4hogftj
Type: image/png
Size: 6749 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.ncsg.is/pipermail/ncsg-discuss/attachments/20251113/f3cf96c6/attachment.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Outlook-mul4eupi
Type: image/png
Size: 6749 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.ncsg.is/pipermail/ncsg-discuss/attachments/20251113/f3cf96c6/attachment-0001.png>
More information about the Ncsg-discuss
mailing list