NCUC Trip Proposal 2 DRAFT

2) Traveler Contact Information and Itinerary:

Session Title: Content regulation and private ordering at Internet
governance institutions

Session Format: Panel

What theme does this session fall under?: Freedom of Expression

Please describe what you want to do in your session: issue relevant to
the Internet due to the existence of myriad of players deploying,
running and managing ICT networks and services and inability of the
governments to control complex decentralised Internet and address all
the existing trheats with the traditional top-down approaches. Private
ordering is common in the field of ICT, cybersecurity and cybercrime.
In particular, it is used in Internet governance institutions such as
the Internet Corperation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which
mainly creates and implements policies through a bottom-up,
multistakeholder process and via contractual agreements. Due to
different concerns related to human rights, private enforcement and
narrow technical remit of ICANN, it is widely agreed among different
stakeholders that ICANN's contracts  and policies must not lead ICANN
to become a content regulator on the Internet. This session will
primarily address the following issues:

•       What is private ordering and how do we see it manifest on the
Internet as a new vehicle for content regulation?
•       What are the key trends and risks digital rights protectors must be
aware of and defend against
•       The example of ICANN - how do ICANN's policies affect the content on
the Internet?

•       What are the dangers for Internet governance institutions, platforms
and the broader Internet Governance ecosystem if they step into the
domain of enforcing / facilitating enforcement of content regulation?

•       It will also put forward some solutions as to how the
multistakeholder community can prevent Internet governance
organizations from becoming a content regulator.

These solutions might be even used in other Internet governance
institutions that online platforms that are prone to become content
regulators or are already regulating or being forced/expected to
regulate content.

Who will be joining you in this session? Have you confirmed their
participation? Who will be moderating this session?: The list of
panellists is no finalized yet. In finalizing the list we consider
gender, stakeholder groups and regional diversity.

We  have interested members of Noncommercial Users Constitutency at
ICANN who are willing to speak and lead the session. They have a
strong academic and activism background and have a wide range of
experience in Internet governance institutions, cybersecurity,
cybercrime and knowledge of multistakeholder governance, freedom of
expression and many more. As to inviting other speakers from the
industry and government, we would be grateful for suggestions but we
also have a network of members of the private sector who work with
private ordering on their day to day job and government representative
who are against private ordering.

What outcomes would you like to achieve with your session, and how
will you transition these activities into post-conference action?: Our
session will lead to an outcome document on the definition of content
regulation, what is ICANN doing with regards to content regulation and
in which areas it has become a content regulator. It will also make
suggestions as to how ICANN could be prevented from regulating content
by policymaking and multistakeholder participation