[CPWG] ICANN Blog: The Global Digital Compact: A Top-down Attempt to Minimize the Role of The Technical Community

[David Mackey]

Thanks for the information Olivier.

I just came across an interesting response from Milton Mueller's Internet
Governance Project.

The Technical Community and Internet Governance: A Response to the
Costerton-Curran-Wilson letter
<https://www.internetgovernance.org/2023/08/22/the-technical-community-and-internet-governance-a-response-to-the-costerton-curran-wilson-letter/?utm_source=Internet+Governance+Project&utm_campaign=4f4ed45b10-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4377131903-4f4ed45b10-288444909>

I include the last four paragraphs below ...

4. Why it is harmful to make the UN the Boogeyman

The most annoying thing about the ICANN-ARIN-APNIC missive, however, is its
apparent attempt to revive the old “UN is trying to take over the Internet”
meme. This boogeyman has been used by the technical community and the US
government to haunt the children of the global multistakeholder community
since 2002. When the threat was real, or even real but exaggerated, this
was OK. But 7 years after the ICANN transition there is no excuse for it.
We have already explained why the UN lacks the power to take over any key
Internet governance functions. We have already noted that their only
systematic attempt to do that, at WSIS in 2005, totally failed.

Reviving this threat narrative, however, does real damage to the public
discourse on IG, because it diverts attention from the real threats to the
multistakeholder model.

We live in a digital environment that is fragmenting along jurisdictional
lines. The Europeans are pursuing Digital Sovereignty, as are the Indians
and Chinese. The Americans are weaponizing semiconductors, undersea cables,
investment capital in ICT, and actively considering blocking Chinese apps;
the UK is considering banning end to end encryption, leading to the
possible exit of key applications and services from the UK market. Tech
nationalism is on the rise everywhere. What we must understand in this
context is that the threats to a global Internet come from conflicts
between and regulations from sovereign states, not from the UN, a weak
intergovernmental institution that can only act when these states all agree.

Our advice to Costerton, Curran and Wilson: take a deep breath. Calmly
consider what powers the multistakeholder community – which consists of a
largely undifferentiated mass of techies, civil society, academics and
business – already have in Internet governance. Try to do an accurate
accounting of the threats to that governance model. Devote your attention
and efforts to those threats. Don’t try to drive the community into
pointless battles with ghosts.

On Wed, Aug 23, 2023 at 4:49 AM gopal via CPWG <cpwg at icann.org> wrote:

> Thank you Olivier.
>
> Nice blog.
>
> Separation of concerns of "Technical" and "Managerial" has been into
> discussions several times. There is no single formula to achieve this as of
> now.
>
> I suggest reading the article titled *"The Technological Sublime:
> Incredible, terrifying, or both?"* at:
>
>
> https://www.arcual.art/blog/the-technological-sublime-incredible-terrifying-or-both#:~:text=often%20conflicting%20ways.-,Much%20like%20the%20sublime%20in%20art%2C%20technology%20evokes%20both%20awe,greater%20detail%20during%20this%20article.
>
> <https://www.arcual.art/blog/the-technological-sublime-incredible-terrifying-or-both#:~:text=often%20conflicting%20ways.-,Much%20like%20the%20sublime%20in%20art%2C%20technology%20evokes%20both%20awe,greater%20detail%20during%20this%20article.>
> The Technological Sublime: Incredible, terrifying, or both?
> <https://www.arcual.art/blog/the-technological-sublime-incredible-terrifying-or-both#:~:text=often%20conflicting%20ways.-,Much%20like%20the%20sublime%20in%20art%2C%20technology%20evokes%20both%20awe,greater%20detail%20during%20this%20article.>
> Much like the sublime in art, technology evokes both awe and a sense of
> unease. Here, we deep dive further into this duality.
> www.arcual.art
>
> Sincerely,
>
>
> Gopal T V
> 0 9840121302
> https://vidwan.inflibnet.ac.in/profile/57545
> https://www.facebook.com/gopal.tadepalli
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> Dr. T V Gopal
> Professor
> Department of Computer Science and Engineering
> College of Engineering
> Anna University
> Chennai - 600 025, INDIA
> Ph : (Off) 22351723 Extn. 3340
>        (Res) 24454753
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> ------------------------------
> *From:* CPWG <cpwg-bounces at icann.org> on behalf of Olivier MJ
> Crépin-Leblond via CPWG <cpwg at icann.org>
> *Sent:* 23 August 2023 12:44
> *To:* cpwg at icann.org <cpwg at icann.org>
> *Subject:* [CPWG] ICANN Blog: The Global Digital Compact: A Top-down
> Attempt to Minimize the Role of The Technical Community
>
> An interesting new ICANN blog post:
>
>
> https://www.icann.org/en/blogs/details/the-global-digital-compact-a-top-down-attempt-to-minimize-the-role-of-the-technical-community-21-08-2023-en
>
> This one's likely to be causing some ripples in the Internet Governance
> landscape.
> But some are already asking why are the other RIRs and ISOC not
> co-signatories?
> And how about the IETF & World Wide Web foundation?
>
> Altogether, it seems like an incomplete set of I* organisations. Or was
> the piece perhaps meant just as an opinion piece to start a discussion?
>
> Kindest regards,
>
> Olivier
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