IE-Annual-Report-2023

Global coordination ICANN’s role is to oversee the huge and complex interconnected network of unique identifiers that allow computers on the Internet to find one another. ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, was formed in 1998. Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, it is a not-for-profit partnership of people from all over the world. ICANN’s primary principles of operation have been described as helping preserve the operational stability of the Internet; to promote competition; to achieve broad representation of the global Internet community; and to develop policies appropriate to its mission through bottom-up, consensus-based processes. ICANN does not control content on the Internet. It cannot stop spam and it does not deal with access to the Internet. But through its coordination role of the Internet’s naming system, it does have an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet. ICANN has external as well as internal accountabilities. Externally, ICANN is an organisation incorporated under the law of the State of California in the United States, so it can be sued in court. ICANN is also a non-profit public benefit corporation and its directors are legally responsible for upholding their duties under corporate law. Internally, ICANN is accountable to the community through its bylaws, and its representative composition of the ICANN Board from across the globe. Governments can participate in ICANN’s work programme via the Government Advisory Committee (GAC). At the ICANN 52 meeting in Singapore in February 2015, the GAC welcomed Ireland as a new GAC member (along with other late arrivals such as Kazakhstan and Mauritania). Membership of this influential committee was a major milestone for Ireland Inc in 2015, as it gives Ireland a voice on trans-national Internet policy matters. In October 2016, ICANN was freed from U.S. government oversight and on 6 January 2017, an extremely important change in the governance of the DNS took place, with the completion of the transition of the IANA stewardship to ICANN. IANA is responsible for management of the DNS root zone. Its tasks include “evaluating requests to change the operators of country code domains, as well as day-to-day maintenance of the details of the existing operators … and maintaining their technical and administrative details”. The Root Zone Database represents the delegation details of top-level domains, including gTLDs such as .com, and country- code TLDs such as .uk. As the manager of the DNS root zone, IANA is responsible for coordinating these delegations in accordance with its policies and procedures . The legislative framework in Ireland The legislative framework in Ireland is well developed. The Communications Regulation (Amendment) Act, 2007 essentially transfers the powers previously available to the Minister for Communications under the Electronic Commerce Act, 2000 (but never exercised by him) to ComReg, with some limited but important amendments and additions. As an input into the process of developing a potential regulatory framework for .ie, ComReg launched a public consultation process on the .ie namespace and published its formal Response to Consultation, Document 09/01. ComReg’s related press release stated that: ▶ ComReg will, by way of regulation, appoint .IE as the authority authorised to register .ie domain names in accordance with Section 32(4) (a) of the Act of 2007. ▶ .IE will set up and maintain a Policy Advisory Committee representative of all stakeholders with a focus on more transparent policy development. ▶ .IE will continue to adopt the “managed approach” to .ie registrations to ensure continued protection for .ie domain name holders and consumers. In this context, the Company looks forward to a continuing working relationship with ComReg. International Internet Governance The 18th IGF, under the overarching theme The Internet We Want – Empowering All People , was held in Kyoto, Japan in October 2023. The IGF was established by the United Nations following the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in 2006. The UN’s ten-year review concluded successfully with the adoption of the WSIS+10 Forum’s Resolution on 16 December 2015. It reaffirmed three core elements of the ‘Tunis compromise’: First , it extended the IGF mandate for a further 10 years and reaffirmed its underlying architecture, meaning that Internet governance is addressed under the UN umbrella, but in a multi-stakeholder manner. Second , it retained the roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders as outlined in the Tunis Agenda. Third , it maintained the element of ambiguity around an enhanced cooperation arrangement, which allows for different interpretations. While there is no negotiated outcome, the IGF informs and inspires those with policy-making power in both the public and private sectors. The WSIS+20 Forum high-level event is scheduled to be held from 27 to 31 May 2024, co-organised by ITU, UNESCO, UNDP and UNCTAD and co-hosted by ITU and the Swiss Confederation, with the support of remote participation. Governance IE Domain Registry CLG t/a .IE / Annual Report & Review 2023 13