NCUC Trip Proposal 2

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 Corporation 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 Constituency 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.