As we near the review of the implementation outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS+20) in December, many of the topics included in the Tunis Action Lines, decided in 2005, are being discussed. Emerging topics such as data governance, artificial intelligence (AI), and content policies also have become a part of the dialogue.
ICANN is very active in the ongoing WSIS discussions; at the same time, we have a limited mandate. Our mission and Bylaws are specific to the administration and coordination of the Internet's unique identifier systems, including the Domain Name System. Our remit, to ensure the security, stability, and resilience of those systems, is key to making the Internet work for the billions of people who depend on it.
While other applications and services being discussed in the WSIS+20 review ride on top of this foundational, functional layer, these topics extend beyond ICANN's mandate and scope.
The Internet has remained stable and secure throughout its explosive growth over the last 20 years. The permissionless, bottom-up innovation that is enabled by the multistakeholder model has resulted in hundreds of thousands of companies being created online and many new technologies have flourished – from applications to AI.
The success of the multistakeholder model comes from bringing together all stakeholders, the technical community, business, governments, and civil society, to discuss on equal footing the principles that govern the foundational technical layers. These discussions have been rooted in the desire to ensure the Internet remains stable, resilient, unified, and ubiquitous, and it has allowed the stakeholders to reach consensus on how this will be achieved. While we also believe that the multistakeholder approach can be a successful governance model for AI, data governance, or content, each of these areas has its own community, its own challenges, and therefore a need for its own model that is fit for purpose. Developing governance models and policies for these new technologies is clearly outside of ICANN's scope. In the context of WSIS+20, it is important that we therefore not mix the desire to explore governance of new areas with the existing governance models of the foundational layer of the Internet.
The Internet has and will continue to grow and change. We are strong advocates for the multistakeholder model of Internet governance, and are grateful to the ICANN community, which remains engaged and focused on dynamics that could ensure the stability, security, and resiliency of the Internet and enable it to flourish and evolve.
