ICANN Announcements

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ICANN org Responds to Digital Services Act Initiative Public Consultation Launched by European Commission

10 September 2020

BRUSSELS – 10 September 2020 – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced on 8 September 2020 that the ICANN org has responded to the European Commission's public consultation on the Digital Services Act (DSA). The DSA is a legislative initiative launched in response to growing concern over the roles and responsibilities of online platforms. It aims to update elements of the European Union's e-Commerce Directive, including the liability provisions for intermediaries.

In ICANN org's response to the public consultation, which closed on 8 September 2020, it urged policy makers not to conflate the Internet's core infrastructure and operations with the applications that run on top of that infrastructure. Core infrastructure service providers, which are primarily engaged in maintaining stability and interconnectivity, should not be held responsible for third-party content that is outside of their control.

The full set of responses submitted by ICANN org are available here.

For more information about the potential impact of the DSA initiative on the ICANN community, please read this ICANN org Government Engagement publication. This paper provides an update and analysis of the DSA initiative, as well as its relevance to ICANN's technical role in the Internet ecosystem.

About ICANN

ICANN's mission is to help ensure a stable, secure, and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet, you need to type an address – a name or a number – into your computer or other device. That address must be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN helps coordinate and support these unique identifiers across the world. ICANN was formed in 1998 as a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with a community of participants from all over the world.