Andrew, yes, Google is a founding member of the Global Network Initiative and is working with GNI to develop a human rights assessment process for Internet companies and hopefully the ICT sector more broadly. Perhaps ICANN staff might be more willing to listen to GNI members Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft than to non-commercial users. Milton, glad you like the idea. If our GNSO councilors are interested in bringing this up through the GNSO, or if anybody participating in the various working groups wants to use the GNI principles on privacy and free expression as a benchmark for whether basic standards are being met on that front please let me know what other contacts/info you need. Meanwhile I will plan to submit something with this suggestion in the DAG public comments as well. Cheers, Rebecca On Sun, Nov 1, 2009 at 9:13 PM, Andrew A. Adams <[log in to unmask]>wrote: > milton Mueller wrote: > > This is a fantastic idea, Rebecca. > > As you may know, some of us have been trying to get free expression > concerns > > as an officially recognized part of ICANN's agenda for some time (back to > > the beginning, in fact). > > We learned during the new gTLD policy making process (e.g., the "morality > > and public order" section) how difficult that will be and we have learned > > that the U.S. government is completely indifferent, at least the Commerce > > Department that controls relations with ICANN. > > I recently attended a talk by David Drummond, Chief Legal Officer and > Senior > VP at Google, on Technology and Freedom of Speech. He (and by extension, > Google, since he was speaking officially for the company) have a policy of > promoting freedom of speech quite broadly. They might be a useful ally in > such an effort. > -- IMPORTANT: My Hong Kong University e-mail ([log in to unmask]) will stop working in January. Please use my gmail instead (see below). Rebecca MacKinnon Open Society Fellow | Co-founder, GlobalVoicesOnline.org Assistant Professor, Journalism & Media Studies Centre, University of Hong Kong UK: +44-7759-863406 USA: +1-617-939-3493 HK: +852-6334-8843 Mainland China: +86-13710820364 E-mail: [log in to unmask] Blog: http://RConversation.blogs.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/rmack Friendfeed: http://friendfeed.com/rebeccamack