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Join the ICANN Board Working Group on Anti-Harassment Open Session at ICANN65

20 June 2019
By
Sarah Deutsch

Sarah Deutsch

ICANN Board Member

Sarah Deutsch is a practicing attorney with considerable experience on Internet policy and related legal issues. Sarah worked for over 23 years at Verizon Communications as Vice President and Deputy General Counsel in its Legal Department. She managed the company’s global intellectual property practice and team of legal and technical personnel responsible for trademarks, domain names, copyrights, patent licensing and portfolio management and unfair competition issues. Her responsibilities included federal, state and international matters involving counseling, litigation, and Internet policy, including close coordination with Verizon’s technical teams and engineers.

Sarah has served as a subject matter expert in Verizon’s Legal Department on Internet issues since the mid 1990s. She has extensive experience in IP policy, online liability issues, privacy, cyber-security and consumer protection issues and related advocacy before the US Congress, federal agencies, state legislatures, and global bodies including WIPO, OECD, and other legislative and regulatory bodies. Sarah was the first attorney to oversee Verizon’s Privacy Office, including managing its Chief Privacy Officer, privacy attorneys and staff. She was a Lecturer of Law at Harvard Law School, teaching a class in online privacy in 2019.

Sarah was one of five negotiators for the U.S. telecommunications industry in the negotiations that led to the passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. She also served as a Private Sector Advisor to U.S. Delegation to the WIPO Copyright Treaties and to the G8 Cybercrime Conference. Sarah was the 2014 recipient of the Managing IP In-House Counsel Award at the American Women in Business Law Awards. In 2009, she received the Public Knowledge President’s Award for Extraordinary Dedication to Protecting the Free Flow of Information Over the Internet.

Sarah has been involved in ICANN issues since its inception, working on numerous issues over the years with the Business Constituency and the IPC. She has also coordinated closely with the ISPCP. Sarah served as the Business Constituency’s Commercial Stakeholder Group representative, and also represented the BC on the Nominating Committee. She currently serves on the Board of the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, the nonprofit Edgemoor Research Institute and the nonprofit National Center for Health Research.

Prior to joining Verizon, Sarah was an associate in the law firm of Morgan, Lewis Bockius. She holds a J.D. from American University, Washington College of Law and a B.A. from Emory University. She was nominated to serve on the ICANN Board by the Nominating Committee in 2017. Her term will expire at the Annual General Meeting 2023.

The ICANN Board Working Group on Anti-Harassment will hold an open session at ICANN65 in Marrakech, Morocco on 24 June 2019 at 17:00 local time. This session provides an opportunity for the Working Group to engage with the community and to provide a status update on the Working Group's current and planned activities.

The Board is committed to enabling a culture of trust and mutual respect in efforts to prevent harassment in ICANN's multistakeholder community.

The Board Working Group on Anti-Harassment was formed by the ICANN Board to oversee a review of the community's understanding of the existing Community Anti-Harassment Policy and the procedures and practices that follow from it. The group's work is also aimed at increasing the community's awareness of the Policy and examining the processes that are followed after a harassment complaint has been made.

This ICANN65 session follows our previous discussion with a cross-section of interested community members during ICANN64. All community members are welcome to attend the session at ICANN65 to learn more about the Working Group's priorities:

ICANN Community Anti-Harassment Policy

Raising awareness and improving understanding of the existing Community Anti-Harassment Policy is a key priority. We will discuss critical drivers of the policy, such as purpose and guiding principles.

Role of the ICANN Ombuds Office

The ICANN Board, the organization, and the Ombuds Office continue to work together to secure an environment of mutual respect, support and collegiality for ICANN's global community. The Office of the Ombudsperson will highlight its role and responsibilities and outline the complaint procedure process.

Anti-Harassment Awareness-Raising Campaign

At ICANN64, the Board Working Group agreed with community members on the importance of launching a broad anti-harassment awareness campaign in collaboration with ICANN org. We have made good progress on efforts to highlight existing processes and procedures and providing information on how to report harassment.

Standards of Behavior and Changing the Culture within the ICANN Community

ICANN has existed for over 20 years and its culture continues to evolve. Although globally distributed, the ICANN community operates under a set of shared goals, beliefs, and practices. When engaging in ICANN, the Expected Standards of Behavior guide and define appropriate interactions between all ICANN participants. Promoting an environment of mutual respect, support, and collegiality for everyone in ICANN's global community requires a discussion on where we are today and what changes may need to be made for the benefit of all stakeholders.

Best Practices Research on Anti-Harassment Implementation

Preliminary research has been carried out by ICANN org to provide a common understanding of what constitutes best practices among similarly situated organizations' implementation of anti-harassment policies. Areas of focus include ongoing education, awareness, and outreach.

As a next step, we invite interested community members to review this initial research and provide any feedback in writing to anti-harassment@icann.org by 20 July 2019. We look forward to finalizing this source document as our work moves into the next phase.

Post ICANN65 Baseline Awareness Survey

All community members using the "ICANN Meetings" application on their smart phone or tablet will be invited to complete a short survey at the conclusion of ICANN65. The purpose of the survey is to better understand the current level of awareness across the community about existing Community Anti-Harassment Policy and procedures that relate to standards of behavior and anti-harassment. The survey results will serve as a baseline to measure the success of future efforts and to inform any potential next steps. When prompted, please do take a minute to complete the survey to share your thoughts – we want to hear from you.

It's our sincere hope that ICANN65 attendees will join this session and participate in this collaborative effort.

Authors

Sarah Deutsch

Sarah Deutsch

ICANN Board Member
Sarah Deutsch

Sarah Deutsch

ICANN Board Member

Sarah Deutsch is a practicing attorney with considerable experience on Internet policy and related legal issues. Sarah worked for over 23 years at Verizon Communications as Vice President and Deputy General Counsel in its Legal Department. She managed the company’s global intellectual property practice and team of legal and technical personnel responsible for trademarks, domain names, copyrights, patent licensing and portfolio management and unfair competition issues. Her responsibilities included federal, state and international matters involving counseling, litigation, and Internet policy, including close coordination with Verizon’s technical teams and engineers.

Sarah has served as a subject matter expert in Verizon’s Legal Department on Internet issues since the mid 1990s. She has extensive experience in IP policy, online liability issues, privacy, cyber-security and consumer protection issues and related advocacy before the US Congress, federal agencies, state legislatures, and global bodies including WIPO, OECD, and other legislative and regulatory bodies. Sarah was the first attorney to oversee Verizon’s Privacy Office, including managing its Chief Privacy Officer, privacy attorneys and staff. She was a Lecturer of Law at Harvard Law School, teaching a class in online privacy in 2019.

Sarah was one of five negotiators for the U.S. telecommunications industry in the negotiations that led to the passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. She also served as a Private Sector Advisor to U.S. Delegation to the WIPO Copyright Treaties and to the G8 Cybercrime Conference. Sarah was the 2014 recipient of the Managing IP In-House Counsel Award at the American Women in Business Law Awards. In 2009, she received the Public Knowledge President’s Award for Extraordinary Dedication to Protecting the Free Flow of Information Over the Internet.

Sarah has been involved in ICANN issues since its inception, working on numerous issues over the years with the Business Constituency and the IPC. She has also coordinated closely with the ISPCP. Sarah served as the Business Constituency’s Commercial Stakeholder Group representative, and also represented the BC on the Nominating Committee. She currently serves on the Board of the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, the nonprofit Edgemoor Research Institute and the nonprofit National Center for Health Research.

Prior to joining Verizon, Sarah was an associate in the law firm of Morgan, Lewis Bockius. She holds a J.D. from American University, Washington College of Law and a B.A. from Emory University. She was nominated to serve on the ICANN Board by the Nominating Committee in 2017. Her term will expire at the Annual General Meeting 2023.

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