Congratulations to Farzi and Reg Levy (Tucows) for leading a truly interesting and information meeting on the new "DNS Abuse Amendments"!!
Let me start the notes - and invite those who were on the call to add their thoughts to my notes below (with a different color, perhaps). What I learned is the Contracted Party House sought to put definitions on "DNS Abuse" as we have understood them in ICANN over the last few years. Specifically, phishing, pharming, malware, botnets and spam as a delivery mechanism for the above (e.g., spam with phishing requests).
Farzi and NCSG raised concerned for oversight and accountability: how to we monitor that the limited definitions of DNS Abuse are observed; how do we keep know when organizations (such as Law Enforcement) are asking for much, much more?
NCSG discussed the needs for Human Rights understandings and impact assessments, and offered to help provide analyses. We raised concerns about transparency and due process, about human rights concerns, and free expression, and the limits of the scope of ICANN and what registries and registrars should be doing.
I raised the concern of the "Slipperly Slope" - what some people think of as "DNS Abuse" is much broader than the definitions now in the contract (and above). "DNS Abuse," for some can mean any content on the Internet they don't like, and that can include the type of political, personal, ethnic and religious content that our communities in which NCSG members tend to engage. It is clear that ICANN, as an organization, cannot monitor and oversee content (as stated in our Bylaws). I think we have a job to help Registries and Registrars from being pushed into content monitoring.
Issues on the horizon regarding and related to DNS Abuse- and that NCSG must watch and help define:
1) Accuracy: Law enforcement and many others want to know who a speaker is. It's easier to find the bad guys that way. But we know throughout history, people have written their comments and concerns under other names - pseudonyms and pen names - because of gender, political views, or deep societal concerns, etc, including George Sand and Mark Twain. Michele Neylon, a registrar noted that some fake names also are indicators of stolen credit cards and PayPal accounts, but I would argue that's where the problem lies (financial fraud) and not the pen name itself.
2) Anonymous requests by Law Enforcement and private security groups - these groups want a lot of information from Registrars about Registrants, but want to provide little information about themselves. They also do not want their requests known to Registrants, yet the disclosure of a personal address, even a name, can be a life or death matter to the Registrant, depending on who they are, where they are, and what they are writing and saying. Tx to Farzi for raising this issue - one that also relates to the new RDRS/WHOIS Disclosure System.
3) More, More, More - as discussed above, some of our fellow ICANN Community members want Registries and Registrars to do much more as content monitors of the Internet. Keeping DNS Abuse defined, narrowly-tailored and limited is going to be an ongoing task for NCSG. We asked the Registrars and Registries to share with us where and when meetings are taking place (because session titles are not always clear). Stay tuned for meetings at ICANN79 in Puerto Rico.
4) Success - Contracted Party House shared that ICANN is looking for definitions of "success" in DNS Abuse. Our definition may be a little different than any other registrant or user group in ICANN. Thus, we should let ICANN know NCSG's definition of "success" for DNS Abuse and these new contractual terms. Registrars recommended that we share our thoughts directly with ICANN Compliance.
Please add and edit!
Best, Kathy
On 1/16/2024 10:52 AM, farzaneh badii wrote:
Hi all,
Join us to meet with the CPH on DNS Abuse.
Join the Zoom room directly (recommended): https://icann.zoom.us/j/91179659393?pwd=THBVYVlKSWxFaW5nMFdOZVNPQ3VSdz09
Farzaneh-- Kathy Kleiman President, Domain Name Rights Coalition