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ICANN83 Policy and Advice Outcomes

18 June 2025
By
Russ Weinstein

Russ Weinstein

Senior Vice President, Policy Development Support

Russ Weinstein is the Senior Vice President, Policy Development Support. He leads a global team responsible for facilitating the development of policy recommendations and related advice by ICANN's multistakeholder community, as part of ICANN's mission to ensure the stable and secure operation of the Internet's unique identifier systems. Russ brings to his role more than 20 years of experience and success in building relationships, engaging diverse stakeholders, leading programs and teams to implement policy and advice, and creating scalable operations.

Joining ICANN in October 2012 to support the New gTLD Program, Russ has since held management roles of increasing responsibility. Promoted to Vice President, GDD Accounts and Services in 2020, he managed ICANN’s relationships and contracts with gTLD Registries and ICANN-Accredited Registrars.

Before ICANN, Russ worked in the aerospace industry, gaining experience in business operations, finance, contract administration, and supply chain management. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and an MBA from the University of Southern California.

Thank you for participating in ICANN83! I hope the Policy Forum fostered dynamic discussions and advanced priority work items. This blog captures the high-level policy and advice outcomes from the Supporting Organizations (SOs) and Advisory Committees (ACs).

Address Supporting Organization (ASO)

  • The ASO Address Council conducted work sessions to review feedback on the draft Regional Internet Registry Governance Document and coordinated next steps in the ongoing review of Internet Coordination Policy-2 (ICP-2).
  • The ASO held joint sessions with the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC), Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC), and the Internet Service Providers and Connectivity Providers Constituency of the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO).
  • The ASO also offered an information session to provide an overview of the ICP-2 review.

Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO)

  • The ccNSO conducted six informational sessions, which included sessions on Domain Name System (DNS) Abuse, Universal Acceptance, and Internet governance.
  • The ccNSO Council adopted the Terms of Reference for a Study Group on Internet Assigned Numbers Authority data accuracy.
  • The ccNSO held a joint session with the Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD) Registries Stakeholder Group to explore potential collaboration in areas of mutual interest.

Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO)

  • The Latin Script Diacritics Policy Development Process Working Group and the Registration Data Request System Standing Committee both met twice and made meaningful progress.
  • The GNSO Council met and had an important discussion about what projects should be pursued next.
  • The GNSO Council also received updates from its Small Teams on two topics that are important to the broader ICANN community: accuracy of gTLD registration data and DNS Abuse.

At-Large

  • The At-Large community conducted 14 sessions, including two sessions on the New gTLD Program: Next Round and DNS Abuse. The Consolidated Policy Working Group and the Operational, Finance and Budget Working Group also held sessions.
  • At-Large held joint sessions with the GNSO Noncommercial Stakeholder Group, GAC, and SSAC. They also held a session with the ICANN organization Office of the Chief Technology Officer on DNS Abuse mitigation.
  • Regional At-Large Organization (RALO) activities included a General Assembly of the European RALO (EURALO), a EURALO session with the ICANN83 NextGen@ICANN participants, and an African RALO session on the topic of "Africa's DNS Abuse Mitigation Initiative: Empowering Stakeholders Across the Ecosystem."

Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC)

  • The GAC ICANN83 Communiqué contains GAC consensus advice to the ICANN Board urging the GNSO Council to undertake efforts to begin "targeted and narrowly scoped" policy development related to DNS Abuse, including "prioritizing malicious use of bulk registrations."
  • The GAC ICANN83 Communiqué also has statements regarding 11 issues of importance to governments, including accuracy of gTLD registration data, the Applicant Support Program of the New gTLD Program: Next Round, governance of the Regional Internet Registries, the deferral of the Fourth Accountability and Transparency Review, and ICANN community statements of interest.
  • The GAC held joint sessions with the ASO, ALAC, GNSO Council, and the ICANN Board. The joint sessions are an important aspect of recent GAC efforts to implement a set of strategic priorities, which include expectations for outcomes in nine areas that can be achieved with greater outreach and collaboration.

Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC)

  • RSSAC presented two recent publications targeted at root server operators about guidelines for changing Internet Protocol addresses associated with their root service and security incident reporting.
  • RSSAC continued to track the Root Server System Governance Working Group, which will soon publish its draft report for Public Comment in response to RSSAC advice from 2018.
  • RSSAC conducted an open mic session with SSAC to answer questions about RSSAC and SSAC reports, membership, and other relevant topics.

Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC)

  • SSAC presented its recent report on the implications and consequences of using DNS blocking to control access to resources on the Internet.
  • SSAC developed the draft final report on the use of free and open-source software in DNS infrastructure, continued to refine the scope of the Responsible Integration into the DNS Ecosystem Work Party, and explored operational considerations in DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) deployment.
  • SSAC held another successful DNSSEC and Security Workshop and conducted joint sessions with ALAC, GAC, and the GNSO Contracted Parties House.

Additional Highlights

The ICANN community explored messaging strategies for the ongoing 20-year review of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society. The discussion informed potential approaches for how the Internet community can engage national delegations leading up to the high-level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in December.

The "How We Meet" project group, comprising ICANN organization staff and ICANN community members nominated by the SOs and ACs, held a working session to review the Public Comment submissions to its initial report. The project group will now develop final proposals based on the input received to share with the broader ICANN community. This topic was also on the agenda for the SO and AC chairs in their customary roundtable with the leadership of both the ICANN Board and ICANN organization. They also discussed the need for continuing engagement on the future of the ICANN Bylaws-mandated Organizational and Specific Reviews.

The ICANN83 Policy Forum was also an opportunity for the ICANN Board to recognize the many working group chairs across the ICANN community during a reception organized for this purpose. In addition, the ICANN community came together to honor the memory and many contributions of Nigel Hickson, former ICANN organization staff member, GAC vice chair, and representative of the Government of the United Kingdom, who passed away in March 2025.

Please continue your engagement on the many important issues that the ICANN community is working on by reviewing session materials available on the ICANN83 website and consulting SO and AC webpages for additional resources. The team and I are proud to facilitate your sustained contributions. See you online!

Authors

Russ Weinstein

Russ Weinstein

Senior Vice President, Policy Development Support
Russ Weinstein

Russ Weinstein

Senior Vice President, Policy Development Support

Russ Weinstein is the Senior Vice President, Policy Development Support. He leads a global team responsible for facilitating the development of policy recommendations and related advice by ICANN's multistakeholder community, as part of ICANN's mission to ensure the stable and secure operation of the Internet's unique identifier systems. Russ brings to his role more than 20 years of experience and success in building relationships, engaging diverse stakeholders, leading programs and teams to implement policy and advice, and creating scalable operations.

Joining ICANN in October 2012 to support the New gTLD Program, Russ has since held management roles of increasing responsibility. Promoted to Vice President, GDD Accounts and Services in 2020, he managed ICANN’s relationships and contracts with gTLD Registries and ICANN-Accredited Registrars.

Before ICANN, Russ worked in the aerospace industry, gaining experience in business operations, finance, contract administration, and supply chain management. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and an MBA from the University of Southern California.

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