CONSENT AGENDA
Motion for GNSO Council Review of ICANN80 GAC Communiqué
Whereas,
- The Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) advises the ICANN Board on issues of public policy, and especially where there may be an interaction between ICANN's activities or policies and national laws or international agreements. It usually does so as part of a Communiqué, which is published towards the end of every ICANN meeting.
- The Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) is responsible for developing and recommending to the ICANN Board substantive policies relating to generic top-level domains.
- The GNSO Council has expressed a desire to provide feedback to the ICANN Board on issues in the GAC Communiqué as these relate to generic top-level domains to inform the ICANN Board as well as the broader community of past, present, or future gTLD policy activities that may directly or indirectly relate to Advice provided by the GAC.
- The GNSO Council's review of GAC Communiqué Advice and Issues of Importance is intended to further enhance the co-ordination and promote the sharing of information on gTLD related policy activities between the GAC, Board, and the GNSO.
Resolved,
- The GNSO Council adopts the GNSO Review of the ICANN80 Kigali Communiqué Advice [INSERT LINK] and Issues of Importance [INSERT LINK] and requests that the GNSO Council Chair communicate the GNSO Council Review of ICANN80 GAC Communiqué Advice and Issues of Importance to the ICANN Board.
- The GNSO Council requests that the GNSO Liaison to the GAC also informs the GAC of the communication between the GNSO Council and the ICANN Board.
Motion - Appointment of a GNSO Liaison to the Governmental Advisory Committee
Submitted by Tomslin Samme-Nlar
Seconded by
Whereas:
- The Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Liaison to the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) role was first piloted in FY15-16 (1 July 2014 to 30 June 2016) as part of a broader initiative of the GAC-GNSO Consultation Group to facilitate early engagement of the GAC in GNSO policy development activities.
- Due to the success of the pilot, the GNSO Liaison to the GAC is now a permanent role and an integral part of communications between the GAC and GNSO.
- The term of the liaison role is two years, and the term limit is two consecutive two-year terms.
- As the current liaison’s term will expire at the 2024 Annual General Meeting (ICANN81), the GNSO Council will now appoint a new liaison to assume the role at ICANN81.
- The GNSO Council initiated a call for candidates to fill the vacancy and delegated the responsibility of the review and selection process to the GNSO Standing Selection Committee (SSC).
- Two applications were received and were evaluated by the SSC based on the criteria outlined in the call for candidates.
- Following a review of candidates the SSC agreed by full consensus to recommend that Sebastien Ducos will be appointed as the new GNSO Liaison to the GAC commencing at the ICANN81 AGM in November 2024.
- The SSC also agreed to recommend Sophie Hey as alternate if deemed appropriate by her and the GNSO Council should the need arise.
Resolved:
- The GNSO Council hereby appoints Sebastien Ducos to the role of GNSO Liaison to the GAC, assuming the role at the ICANN81 AGM in November 2024.
- The GNSO Council will review the role annually and if the review indicates and/or the Liaison has indicated that he is no longer available to continue in this role the Council will consider Sophie Hey as alternate for the remaining period of the term if she is willing at the time, otherwise the SSC will conduct a new selection process.
- The GNSO Council directs the GNSO Secretariat to inform the candidates and the GAC leadership of the GNSO Council’s decision.
- The GNSO Council thanks Jeff Neuman for his four years of service as the GNSO Council Liaison to the GAC.
Registration Data Accuracy Scoping Team Recommendations #1 and #2
Submitted by Tomslin Samme-Nlar
Seconded by
Whereas, the GNSO Council resolved on 17 November 2022 to defer consideration of Recommendations #1 and #2 of the Registration Data Accuracy Scoping Team until such time as the Data Processing Agreement (DPA) negotiations between ICANN org and Contracted Parties have completed and there is feedback from ICANN org on if/how it anticipates the requesting and processing of registration data will be undertaken in the context of measuring accuracy, or for six months, whichever is the shorter;
Whereas, recommendation #1 from the Scoping Team recommended ICANN org to carry out a voluntary registrar survey regarding registrar practices for data accuracy;
Whereas, recommendation #2 from the Scoping Team recommended ICANN org to conduct a registrar audit;
Whereas, ICANN org conducted a comprehensive assessment of the four scenarios and provided its assessment on Registration Data Accuracy efforts on 19 October 2023, noting specifically:
- It is unclear whether [the scenarios] would provide useful data to inform the Accuracy Scoping Team’s efforts;
- The scenarios are not expected to provide data as it relates to identity verification of the registrant or veracity of the contact information (i.e., the data belongs to the data subject);
- The costs associated with a full-scale registrar audit [Scoping Team Recommendation #2] may be prohibitive when taking into account the relatively low level of insight the audit may yield;
- ICANN does not have the authority to mandate collection of nonpublic registration data necessary to conduct reviews outside of auditing current contractual requirements; and
- ICANN may not be able to demonstrate the purpose of some of the data processing outweighs the rights of the impacted data subject;
- Based on the voluntary nature of the survey [Scoping Team Recommendation #1], should a significant portion of registrars not participate, information collected may be statistically disproportionate to registration data that exists across all registered gTLD domain names.
Whereas, the GNSO Council discussed ICANN org’s assessment during its meeting on 16 November 2023.
Whereas, the GNSO Council deferred the consideration of the Scoping Team’s recommendations for an additional six months on 15 February 2024, noting that, barring (i) completion of the Data Processing Agreement, (ii) implementation of the NIS2 directive, or (iii) publication of the Inferential Analysis of Maliciously Registered Domains (INFERMAL) Study, it may not be the appropriate time to consider the Accuracy Scoping Team’s recommendations.
Whereas, the GNSO Council further discussed the limitations noted in ICANN org’s assessment during its meetings on 12 June 2024 and 18 July 2024 and agreed not to proceed with the Scoping Team’s recommendations and not to restart the Scoping Team at this time.
Whereas, the GNSO Council recognizes the importance of Registration Data Accuracy to the ICANN community and commits to continue its discussion of how best to move forward on this topic.
Resolved,
- The GNSO Council will not proceed with the Registration Data Accuracy Scoping Team’s Recommendations #1 and #2 due to the limitations noted in ICANN org’s Assessment of Registration Data Accuracy Scenarios.
- The GNSO Council will not restart the Registration Data Accuracy Scoping Team at this time due to limitations in processing data for the purpose of assessing accuracy.
Motion to Approve Supplemental Recommendations for the Non-Adopted Topic 24: String Similarity Evaluation SubPro Recommendations
Submitted by: Paul McGrady
Seconded by:
WHEREAS,
- The GNSO Council adopted the Final Report of the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures (SubPro) PDP on 18 February 2021.
- On 16 March 2023, the ICANN Board adopted the majority of the SubPro Outputs, as identified in Section A of the Scorecard, while designating a select set of recommendations as pending, identified in Section B of the Scorecard.
- The GNSO Council established a small team to carefully review the pending SubPro recommendations and identify the best path forward to seek to resolve the issues that were preventing Board adoption of the pending recommendations.
- Leveraging the small team, the GNSO Council was able to address the vast majority of pending recommendations, through a combination of dialogue with the ICANN Board, issuing two Clarifying Statements, and adopting several Supplemental Recommendations during its April 2024 meeting.
- During the Council's April 2024 meeting, the Council elected to pursue further amendments to the Supplemental Recommendations related to Topic 24: String Similarity Evaluations, and accordingly, removed the relevant Supplemental Recommendations from consideration.
- The Small Team Plus was reconvened to consider a draft proposal put forth by ICANN org to allow for singular and plurals of the same word in the same language to be identified.
- The Small Team Plus has since developed Supplemental Recommendations that both allow for the identification of singular and plurals of the same word in the same language, but also introduces a mechanism that may allow for the singular and plurals to coexist if certain circumstances are fulfilled.
- On [date], the Supplemental Recommendations regarding Topic 24: String Similarity Evaluations were shared with the GNSO Council.
RESOLVED,
- The GNSO Council approves the Supplemental Recommendations for the non-adopted SubPro recommendations related to Topic 24: String Similarity Evaluations and instructs the GNSO Secretariat to transmit the Supplemental Recommendations to the ICANN Board.